48 CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF S. INDIA. [PaRT II. § 1. 



that of the Ootatoor Group, which, as I shall show further on, there is 



every reason to believe is one of original deposition. 



Mr. Oldham who, as I have mentioned, examined the plants of these 



beds on the spot, has recorded his opinion to the 

 Dr. Oldham's opinion. 



effect that the beds are of the same general Geolo- 

 gical epoch as those of Rajmahal and Cutch, and that they probably 

 represent some j)ortion of the older Mesozoic groups of Eui^ojDean Geolo- 

 gists :* the Cutch jalant-beds are, as pointed out by Mr. Oldham, stated 

 by Captain Grant to underlie the beds with Oolitic marine fossils ; and 

 hence the inference that the Rajmahal beds (and consequently the Oota- 

 toor plant-beds also) are not more recent than the lower Oolitic. The 

 contemporaneity of these various deposits and their inferior Oolitic age 

 is thus deduced partly from the affinities of their fossil floras, partly, as 

 we have seen, from the information regarding the stratigraphical relation 

 of the Cutch deposit afforded by Captain Grant. 



Under these circumstances I think it not superfluous to mention some 

 circumstances, weak as I acknowledge them to be, in evidence upon this 

 point, which, in the absence of Dr. Oldham's conclusions to the contrary, 

 would have impressed me with the idea that the 23lant-beds near Ootatoor 

 and elsewhere in this district are not much older than the beds 

 which overlie them, 



I have already mentioned that the apparently undisturbed condition 



of the plant-bearing formation would lead me to 



Reasons for inferring a 



later date infer, the probability at least, that the formation 



Undisturbed stratifica- 

 tion, in question is of no great antiquity, also that at 



Maravattoor shales, in which Dr. Oldham detected plant remains which 

 he identified with those of the Ootatoor plant-beds, occur apparently 

 at the base of the Ootatoor Group. I am not inclined to lay any great 

 stress upon this fact, but still, inasmuch as on careful and indeed re- 

 peated examination of the sections, I saw no reason to believe that these 



* Memoirs Geological Survey of India, Vol. II,. page 324. 



