Chap. I.] histouical summary. 7 



of the Asiatic Society,* Dr. Carter had never visited the Cretaceous 

 rocks of Southern India., nor does he publish any new data from other 

 sources ; his remarks are, as in the case of M. D'Archiac, those of a 

 reviewer, who draws his conclusions from the data furnished by others. 

 Nothing further was added to our knowledge until 1857, but in the 

 Mr. Brooke Cuuliffe's n^eantime, in 1854, Mr. Brooke CunlifFe had, by 

 Collection, 1854. means of his trained native collectors, obtained 



a large series of fossils from a hitherto unexplored locality intermediate 

 between the original Trichinopoly and Verdachellum fossiliferous sites. 

 He most liberally placed these at the disposal of Mr. Oldham, who 

 visited Madras in the latter part of 1856, and they proved on examination 

 to consist almost entirely of new species of Cephalopoda. An erroneous 

 list-f* of these, drawn up by myself, was published in a paper read 

 by Mr. Oldham before the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1858.| The 

 described species in this collection were all identical with species 

 previously obtained from Pondicherry, or from the rocks of Cretaceous age 

 in Europe, and the collection, as a whole, indicated an admixture of 

 Neocomian and Upper Cretaceous forms with a decided preponderance of 

 the latter. Dr. A. Hunter of Madras, about this time also procured a 



series of specimens from these beds, and figured a few 

 Dr. A. Hunter, 1857-8. ^ ^ • . o t t -r i ^ » 



01 the species m the Indian Journal oi Art and 



Science, § accompanied by a short popular paper descriptive of the Geology 



of the country, in which however many mistaken views were put 



forward. Dr. Hunter had not personally visited the locality in question. 



* Vol. v., page 179 ; also " Geological Papers on Western India," page 696. 



f The list was en'oneons partly from mistaken identification of the species, but principally, 

 so far as referring to Ootatoor fossils, from a number of Verdachellum and Pondicheny 

 specimens having been accidently intermixed. The Trichinopoly part of the collection consisted 

 almost exclusively of Cephalopoda. The fossils were stated to be from Ootatoor, but 

 were in reality from near- the A-illage of Odium, 1 1 miles to the North-cast of that place. 



% Jom-nal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1858. Proceed, p, 117. 



§ Indian Joumal of Art and Science, Nos. 2, 3, and 4. 



