INTRODUCTORY. 13 



nummulitic rocks. For convenience in this and in subsequent portions 

 o£ the work, the nummulitic formations of India are classsd in four 

 regions — the first comprising Cutch, Sind, and part of Baluchistan ; the 

 second the northern part of the Suleman range and the whole Salt Range 

 of the Punjab ; the third the Subathu country, near Simla ; whilst the 

 fourth includes " some points in the very centre of the Himalayas, and others 

 more distant towards the east/-' In this last region are comprised two 

 tracts at an enormous distance from each other — the Upper Indus valley/ 

 and the Khasi (Khossya) hills with Sylhet. It is not quite clear why these 

 should be associated in one region, especially as it is noticed that the 

 nummulitic rocks appear to extend from the second region in the 

 Punjab, both north-east and north-west, in which direction " they sur- 

 round the high valley of Kashmir.'" The importance of the first region, 

 comprising Sind and Cutch, is shown at once by the fact that it fur- 

 nished 336 out of the 415 species of fossils noticed in the work. A 

 brief account is given of the geological descriptions by Burnes, Grant, 

 and Vicary. The fossils procured from Cutch by Grant, and described 

 by Sowerby, appear not to have been compared by Messrs. D'Archiac 

 and Haime, although many were identified by their figures with species 

 found in Sind and elsewhere. The most important change effected in 

 the classification by the French palaeontologists was to unite the forma- 

 tions distinguished in Cutch by Grant under the names of nummulitic 

 and tertiary, and in tkis they were partly right ; for the " tertiary " 

 fossils of Grant comprised numerous nummulitic species, and there had 

 doubtless been a great admixture, in his collections, of fossils from 

 eocene rocks with others from a higher horizon. The collections of 

 Vicary furnished the bulk of the materials for the nummulitic fauna 



i The only recorded observation is that of Dr. T. Thomson, who is said to have found 

 a bluish-grey limestone, containing Alveolina mefoand Nummulites ramondi, on the top of 

 the Singhe-la (Singhi Pass), at an elevation of 4,875 metres (16,000 feet) between Zanskar 

 and the Indus valley. On this subject see the foot-note by Mr. Medlicott to the Manual of 

 Geology of India, p. 644, where it is shown that grave doubts exist as to the locality havin°- 

 been correctly recorded by Messrs. D'Archiac and Haime. (N. B. — Information has just 

 been received from Mr. Lydekker, since the preceding remarks were put in type, that he 

 has examined the locality, and that no nummulitic beds exist there.) 



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