DECCAN TRAP SERIES. 4.3 



the Narbada river, i and in the accounts given of other localities of this 

 group by subsequent writers. 2 The position of these beds, underneath 

 the trap, which is, I think, not perfectly conformable to them, but suffi- 

 ciently separated from them by overlap and by denudation, is also in 

 favour of these Dudkur beds being a marine representative of this group. 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford has already discussed 3 the relations and age of 



Views of W.T. Blanford. th<3Se beds ' re £ ardin g which he sa 7 s , after a brief 

 description of them and their fossils : " the most 

 abundant of which is a Turritella, apparently identical with T. dispassa 

 of the cretaceous Arialur group. If not identical, the two species are 

 very closely allied. A Nautilus, about fifteen Gasteropoda, and eleven 

 Lamellibranchiala accompany the Turritella; but not a single species 

 except Turritella dispassa, has been recognized as identical either with 

 the cretaceous beds of Southern India or with the eocene fossils of the 

 nummulitic group. The collections have not, however, been sufficiently 

 compared to enable the species to be determined with any certainty. 

 Only one single species, too, Cardita variabilis, has been recognized as 

 occurring also in the overlying intertrappean bed. Although the whole 

 facies is tertiary, there is a remarkable absence of characteristic genera 

 and the chief distinction from the cretaceous fauna of the upper beds 

 in Southern India is simply the want of any marked cretaceous form. 

 The fauna is distinctly marine. 



" It is difficult to say whether this bed should be referred to the 

 Lameta group or not. The mineral character is similar, but all known 

 Lameta outcrops are so distant that the identification is somewhat 

 doubtful. The distinctions between the fossils of the Bagh beds and 

 those of the infratrappeans of Diidkitr and Pungadi appear too great 

 to be attributed solely to the existence of a land barrier between the 

 two areas ; it is difficult to suppose that the two formations can be of 

 the same geological age, and the difficulty consequently arises that, if the 



1 Mem. Geol. Surv. of India, Vol. II, pp. 196-199. 



2 Mein. Geol. Surv. of India, Vols. VI, p. 216; IX, p. 315; XIII, p. 87, and Rec. 

 Geol. Surv. of India, Vol. V, pp. 88, 115. 



3 Manual Geology of India, Part I, p. 316. 



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