Chap. I.] historical summary. 3 



Mr, Kaye's paper iii the Madras Journal was re-published in the 

 Calcutta Journal of Natural History in 1842, 



Mr. Kayc, 1842. . 



accompanied by a supplementary paper containing 



an account of further investigations, and also by a brief description of 



some of the fossils from the pen of Dr. McClelland.* 



Dr. McClelland, 1842. mi /••,•■. i ^ • i i 



The fossils noticed are however few m number, and 



the author does not put forward any opinion respecting their geolo- 

 gical age beyond what may be inferred from the (probably erroneous) 

 identification of certain of them with Nummulitic species. 



Sir Philip Egerton's descriptionf of the fish remains in Mr. Kaye's col- 



^ ., , ., , , lection was published in 184)4. The general result 

 Fossils descnbca by -^ ° 



Su- P. Egerton, 1844. arrived at was that the Pondicherry beds must 



be undoubtedly referred to the Cretaceous period, but that they belong 

 rather to the Upper than to the Lower or Neocomian division of the group ; 

 a point upon which he differs from Professor Forbes, whose opinion 

 was founded on the study of the invertebrate portion of the collections. 

 The valuable Memoir of Professor Forbes on the fossil invertebrata of 

 Fossils described by E. ^^- Kaye's and Mr. CunlifFe's collections, with 

 ' ■ the addition of a collection made by the Revd. 



W. H. Egerton, did not appear until 1847,| but a brief report 

 communicating the principal results arrived at by its author was read 

 before the Geological Society in January 1844,§ and published in 

 their proceedings for that year. These publications, together with 

 that of Sir Philip Egerton just noticed, form the most import- 

 ant contributions to our knowledge of this part of India that 

 have yet appeared, and indeed from the date of their appearance up 



* Cal. Jour. Nat. His. Vol. II., pp. 225—244. 



t Proc. Geological Society, 17th April 1844, Vol. IV., p. 381; also Quarterly Journal Geo- 

 logical Societj^, Vol. I., p. 164. 



% Transactions Geological Societ}^, Vol. VII., p. 97. 



§ Proc. Geological Society, 31st January 1844, Vol. IV., p. 325 ; also Quarterly Joiu-ual 

 Geological Society, Vol. I., p. 79. 



