PREVIOUS OBSEKVEUS. 3 



Nothing of any importance was added to the published information 



on the Geology of Nagpur until the appearance 

 Hislop: 1853. . 



of a description of the " Geology of the Nagpur 



State," by the Revd. Mr. Hislop, in the Journal, Bombay Br. Eoy. 

 As. Soc. for 1853, vol. v, p. 58,* followed by Messrs. Hislop and 

 Hunter's paper, " On the Geology and Fossils of the neigbourhood of 

 Nagpur, Central India," in the Quarterly Jom-nal of the Geological 

 Society, London, for 1855, vol. xi, p. 345. This admirable paper, 

 the geological portion of which is entirely Mr. Hislop's work, is one 

 of the most important additions to the Geology of India ever made 

 by an independent observer. Although I am obliged to differ fi-om 

 some of Mr. Hislop's views as to the relations of the different 

 strata, and although some additional instances will be pointed out in 

 the following pages in which I cannot coincide with his results, it 

 is a simple act of justice to acknowledge what a vast amount of aid 

 has been afforded to the Survey by his published observations. The 

 whole country in the neighbourhood of Nagpur and for many mUes 

 around in every direction, had been searched for fossUs, so that, in many 

 instances, in order to decide questions concerning the identifications of 

 beds, it was sufficient to visit and examine a well-defined locality. The 

 Survey in fact, in a similar case, is placed in the same position as Geo- 

 logical Surveys in Em-ope, and it is no exaggeration to say that the 

 duties of the Indian Survey would be lightened and facilitated to an 

 immense extent if every locality had received from previous observers 

 the same close and careful examination which the neighbom-hood of 

 Nagpiir had received from Mr. Hislop, while the collection of fossils is 

 an undertaking which can only be successfully carried out by a local 

 observer, who can avail himself of such opportunities as may be afforded 

 by quarrying, mining, road-making, digging for tanks, &c. 



* See also a Postscvipt to this paper in the same vol., p. 148. 



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