» MALLETj VINDHYAN SERIES. 



greatly inferior to that of England, and no inconsiderable fraction of 

 India, it would be strange had they escaped investigation. And although 

 less varied in their geological relations than those of other districts of 

 smaller extent, they are not wanting in many points of interest to lead 

 one to their examination. Numerous, however, as the observers have been, 

 , their labours were all confined to limited portions, and the vastness of the 

 area which the Vindhyans occupy rendered it impossible for one geologist 

 to co-ordinate with certainty his results with those of others in distant 

 localities. Even now large tracts of country exist in India concerning 

 which our knowledge is so scanty as to prevent our deciding whether the 

 rocks there belong to this formation or not. As, however, the survey of 

 the Vindhyans has now been in progress for some years, and it must stiU 

 be long before the examination is complete, it has been thought advisable 

 no longer to delay the publication of the results hitherto obtained. It is 

 in the area now finished that the formation is typically displayed. ' It is 

 to a certain extent independent ; and the description of its geology is hot 

 likely to be seriously affected by the working out of the remaining dis- 

 tricts. 



Before entering on this description, it may be usefiil to give a brief 



summary of what had been effected by our pre- 

 Preceding observers. 



decessors in the same field. Of these Captain Dan- 



gerfield * seems to have been the first, but only a small section of his me- 



1823, Captain Danger- "^°"^ ^'^^^^^ ^° ^^^ Vindhyan area. He found that 

 ^^^^' the northern part of Malwa is chiefly occupied by 



sandstones and sandstone-slates, and that these rocks, after passing round 

 at a short distance south of Jowra, also extend down its western bound- 

 ary. The sandstones are generally very fine grained, some varieties afford- 

 ing very valuable building stone. At Jeerun he notes the occurrence of 

 " numerous vegetable remains, or impressions of a species of fern, appearing 



* Memoir of Central India by Sir John Malcolm, Appendix II. 

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