Cn.vr. lY.] triohinopoly dtstutct — plant beds. 41 



section in the banks of several little ravines, and dip generally at an 

 angle of 5 or 6 degrees away from the gneiss, but without much regula- 

 rity as regards direction. In the finer beds, especi- 

 Plant remains. 



ally the soft grey micaceous shales, the impres- 

 sions of Palceo-zaviia fronds are tolerably abundant ; with the venation 

 well exhibited in freshly broken specimens. The vegetable matter has 

 entirely disappeared, and the softness of the shale is such that it is almost 

 impossible to pack specimens for carriage without somewhat obliterating 

 the more delicate parts of the impressions. Near the bottom is a band 

 of ferruginous sand (similar to several which are intercalated in the 

 .shales) in which, together with some small pebbles of gneiss, I found 



_, . ^ , ■, several of an. indurated clay, evidently derived 



Fragments or embed- "^ ' -^ 



ded clay. from some earlier formed bed. I do not think, 



however, that this can be regarded as proving the former existence of a 

 more ancient sedimentary formation. The fragments are small and few 

 in number, and identical in appearance with some thin bands intercalated 

 in the sands with which the}' occur. In thin shallow deposits where 

 the level of the water, owing to local circumstances, is fluctuating, 

 (and such may well have been the conditions under which the plant- 

 beds were formed) nothing is more common than to see these deposits of 

 mud, which have been laid bare to the sun and dried afterwards, broken 

 up and embedded in a subsequent deposit. A similar instance has been 

 noticed in the report on Talcheer.* This is the only case in which 

 I have found fragments of sedimentary rocks in the plant-beds. 



At this spot the plant-beds are only exposed over a breadth of 



about 100 yards, and are then covered up by the 

 Oogalore and Tetany. 



Ootatoor clays : passing to the North they widen 



out, and the fine shales, of which they are principally composed, are 



seen around Oogalore, and also to the east of Terany, where they 



occupy a large area. Their mineral character varies but little. Grey and 



* Memoirs Geological Survey of India, Vol. I., page 52. 



