UPPER GONDWANA SERIES. '65 



purple, and occasionally orange, arranged concentrically, and presenting 



surfaces of no little beauty of colour. The form of 

 Their colour. . 



those patterns on the shale vary considerably, as 



they are generally confined between the limits of a set of joints to which 



the concentric curves show a clear relation. Some examples were 



noticed several feet in diameter, others only a few inches, but these 



latter were generally independent of any visible joints. No Ammonites 



were found in the Razpudi bed, but the other 

 Fossils found at Eazpudi. _ 



tossils agreed with those from the Vemavaram 



flags, and, like them, are ill-preserved, many being blurred by an 



incrustation of extremely minute quartz crystals. Fragments of Dic- 



tyozamites and Ptilophyllwm were the only recognizable plants met with 



at Razpudi. 



In their mode of preservation and condition of occurrence, the Vema- 

 varam fossils agreed very closely with those obtained at and near Sriper- 

 matur. In the great majority of specimens the impressions or casts are 

 stained of some colour different to that of the enclosing shale. 



The colour, which is generally some shade of red or purple, more rarely 

 Fossils at Vem&varam. black or brown, is in most cases confined to the 

 Colour, &c. organism which, for that reason, contrasts strongly 



with the matrix. The plant remains are all fragmentary, many of them 

 very much so, showing that they must have been washed out to sea as 

 torn-off leaves or fronds, but speedily embedded, as they show no 



_ .... „ signs of decay. The shells are frequently crushed 



Condition or preserva- o j ~i j 



tion and its indications. by pressure supervening after they were buried 

 in the mud, but very few show signs of previous injury, and in a 

 very large percentage the two valves of the pelecypodous shells 

 remain in opposition, showing that the living animal had not been 

 brought hither from any great distance, but was rather an inhabitant 

 of the place where entombed, or of its immediate vicinity. As in 

 the Sripermatur beds, the character of the most common shells indicates 

 that the shales were deposited in a rather shallow tranquil sea. 

 e ( 65 ) 



