24 CRETACEOUS ROCKS <)F S. INDIA. [PaRT I. 



The Verdachellura area to tlio. North of the Vellaur is of smaller 



extent, and is occupied mainly by the Cuddalore 

 In Verdachcllum area, 



sandstones, but these beds are rarely exposed, 



being concealed beneath a great thickness of ferruginous sandy soil, 



the material of which they have, in a great measure, furnished during 



subsequent denudation. The upper, or Arrialoor Group, of the Cretaceous 



rocks is alone exposed to a limited extent to the North and West of 



Verdachellum, and these beds also, owing to the thick covering of soil, are 



but little seen, except near the village of Panur, whence Messrs. Cunhffe 



and Kaye obtained the Verdachellum fossils of their collections. 



The Pondicherry area is almost equally obscure, owing to the absence 



of sections and the thickness of the soil Avhich 

 Pondicheny area. 



conceals the outcrops of the beds. A strip of the 



Cuddalore sandstones forming as usual a little plateau, and known as the 

 Red Hills, extends along the coast to the North of Pondicherry, and 

 another small outlier, well known to local Geologists from the abundant 

 silicified remains of fossil wood which it has yielded, occurs in the 

 neighbourhood of the village of Trivicary, 13 miles West of Pondicherry. 

 The intermediate area, about 8 miles in width, is occupied by the 

 Cretaceous rocks, which are for the most part nearly horizontal, but 

 owing to the abovementioned causes, are only seen at rare intervals; 

 and were it not that the rocks of Trichiuopoly furnish us with a key to 

 their Geology, it would be almost impossible to arrive at a true explana- 

 tion from the obscure and scanty data obtainable on the spot. The 



peculiar mixture of species in Mr. Kaye's collec- 

 Anomalies in its fauna. 



tion of Pondicherry fossils was commented upon by 



Professor Forbes, and although from the preponderance of Cephalopoda 



related to, or identical with Neocomian forms of Europe, he referred the 



entire fauna to that epoch, he noticed as an anomalous circumstance 



the existence of species of Gyprwa, (or Ovulum) Oliva, and some other 



tertiary genera, at so remote a period. So much weight did Sir Philip 



