104 MALLETj VINDHYAN SERIES, 



or not. It will be remarked as a somewhat suggestive fact, that most 

 of these pseudo (?) fossils have been observed in the limestone of the 

 upper Vindhyans. 



When describing the lower members of the Vindhyans, it was 



shown that they rested with complete unconformability on the older 



series with which they are brought in contact 

 Age. 



along their margin. Typical cases were men- 

 tioned: — In the Sone valley where the lower Vindhyans repose on 

 the slate series totally uneonformably, and in Gwalior where the 

 valleys in the previously disturbed and denuded strata of the Gwalior 

 series are filled up by masses of the Kymore sandstone and con- 

 glomerate. The Vindhyans are also seen in superposition to the Bija- 

 wurs, but the unconformity is there less clearly marked. The Gwaliors 

 and Bijawurs themselves rest unconformably on the gneiss, and hence 

 it is unnecessary to say that the Vindhyans, where in contact, do 

 so also. 



The age of the Vindhyan series, relatively to the stratified forma- 

 tions newer than itself, cannot be determined by the test of superposition ; 

 for, notwithstanding the immense area covered by these rocks, no more 

 recent deposits anywhere overlie them, except such as are known to be 

 vastly younger. The great coal-bearing formations are nowhere found to 

 repose on them. Palseontologieal evidence also fails us, as hitherto every 

 investigator has failed to procure a single reliable fossil or known form. 

 The only direct evidence we have is the occurrence in the Talchir conglo- 

 merate of pebbles from the Vindhyans. This, however, assuming the 

 genuineness of the pebbles, of which there seems to be no doubt, is per- 

 fectly conclusive. Indirectly corroborative we have the altered aspect of 

 the Vindhyans in some parts, the Dhar forest for instance, where much 

 of the sandstone is converted almost into quartzite, with the absence of 

 anything like metamorphism in the coal rocks, and the absence of organic 



( 104 ) 



