208 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 



large portion of the Upper Carboniferous epoch. Indeed, although 

 the data on which to base an opinion are still deficient both in number 

 and exactitude, it would seem probable that the southern hemisphere, 

 even the southern portion of the northern hemisphere, will be found 

 to supply, in great part, those wanting links in the chain, those gaps 

 in the succession of organic existences, which are so marked in Europe. 



It has long been known that the Indian coal-bearing rocks (the 

 Damtida system) contained many fossils identical with those found in 

 the coal rocks of Australia, and that this series of stratified deposits 

 in both these countries was therefore, synchronous. The age of 

 these coal rocks in Australia has itself been the subject of much con- 

 tention, and is not as yet by any means finally settled. To these 

 rocks I have already referred elsewhere,* and have endeavored to 

 draw from the analogy of these Australian beds some evidence bear- 

 ing on our Indian coal beds. We can now, I believe, reflect the light 

 derived from our Indian series on the Australian succession ; and can 

 so far remove the doubt which hangs over the question of their age, 

 as to fix conclusively a period more recent than which they cannot be. 



I may take this opportunity of noticing briefly a few facts bearing 

 on these rocks. Through the kindness of His Excellency Sir William 

 Denison, now Governor of Madras, I had recently the advantage of 

 receiving a small but excellent series of specimens from the neighbor- 

 hood of Sydney, prepared at Sir William Denison's request by 

 Mr. W. Keene, Examiner of Coal Fields, Newcastle, N. S. W., for 

 the Geological Survey Museum, Calcutta, and accompanied by an 

 admirably drawn and detailed section showing the exact position from 

 which each specimen was obtained. This series contained specimens 

 from the rocks both above and below the coal-bearing beds of the 

 section. I was surprised on examining this series of specimens not 

 only to find, as I had expected, a perfect identity in the contained 



* Memoirs Geological Survey of India, Vol. II., p. 330. 



