258 NERBUDDA DISTRICT. 



subject (a), and holds out the hope that when our Asiatic hill ranges 

 shall have been more thoroughly explored, the date of the movements 

 to which their elevations are, in his opinion, due, will, even in detail, be 

 fixed relatively to his European systems of mountains. He has spoken 

 of this very Vindhyan range, and quotes a classification, proposed by 

 Captain Newbold, in which the Vindhyan forms one of five great systems 

 under which that geologist groups the Mountain systems of India. Our 

 own observations have led to a result different from Captain Newbold's 

 as to the true direction to be assigned to the Vindhyan range, and conse- 

 quently of course to a different estimate of its probable geological age 

 according to the theory. It is possible that his estimate may have been 

 derived from observations made in the Sautpoora range to the south, and 

 not in the so called Vindhyan range itself ; and at any rate our estimate 

 must of course rest on what we believe to be more extended and 

 careful observations. 



Before proceeding to discuss that estimate, we may remark that in 

 applying a portion of M. de Beaumont's theory, we keep quite clear of 

 other parts of it ; that in seeking to determine the relative ages of dis- 

 turbances which have affected parts of the earth's crust widely separated 

 from each other, we leave untouched the question of the manner in 

 which such movements took place. They may, as M. de Beaumont 

 supposes, have been the result of great shocks, cataclysms which sud- 

 denly changed the whole character of the surface over vast areas, or they 

 may mark the final result of an uplifting, or a depressing agent, which for 

 any conceivable length of time, so slowly shifted the rock masses, as to 

 have been inappreciable at any one moment. The only limit necessary for 

 us is, that, if gradual, the movement commenced after the consolidation 

 of one set of beds, and had ceased before the deposition of another set. 



We have shown above that several lines marked by hill ranges and 

 dislocations of the rocks may be traced in this district, all more or less 



(a) Elie de Beaumont. Systemes des Montagnes, Vol. II, p. 646, Paris 1852, 



