PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 6 



been found in attempting to refer the observations to one base line tbat 

 trustwortby results could not be obtained, and these observations can only 

 be said to show approximately the altitudes above the adjacent low country. 



Although a large collection of fossils has been made, the greatest 

 part of which was furnished by the marine Jurassic and tertiary rocks, 

 those from the former gave little help, in the field, towards sub-division 

 of the undoubtedly marine beds of that formation into zones of later or 

 earlier age; while the examination of those obtained from the tertiary 

 rocks not having been completed, the sub-divisions now indicated are 

 mainly based upon petrological evidence, and upon such facts as the 

 scarcity or abundance of fossils or the prevalence of well marked forms. 



At the commencement of the examination of Kutch, attention was 

 directed to two principal points,-— the importance of discoYcring the 

 true relations of the terrestrial plant-bearing to the marine fossiliferous 

 beds of the Jurassic rocks ; and, the investigation of an unconformity 

 supposed to separate the tertiary formation of Western India into two 

 distinct groups. 



With regard to the former of these, the results have established 

 conformity of the whole of the Jurassic strata and shown that while 

 intercalation of the terrestrial and marine forms takes place to a small 

 extent, by far the larger number of marine organisms occurs in the lower 

 or older beds seen, while the characteristic ' Rajmaha? flora is largely, but 

 locally developed in certain beds distributed through the upper portion of 

 this great formation. 



As to the supposed unconformity in the tertiary rocks, this has 

 not been quite so satisfactorily ascertained. The fossiliferous beds seem, 

 notwithstanding great irregularity of deposition and intermixture of 

 textures, to form parts of a whole, but at the top of this series some very 

 recent-looking rocks with obscure and variable relations to those below 

 supervene, with apparent unconformity between them and the sub-reeenfc 

 coast deposits. Both of these points will be more fully treated further on. 



( 3 ) 



