306 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 



I then put forward, that the Vindhyan rocks are of more ancient date 

 than the Damuda group. 



In the more recent researches of Mr. Henry Medlicott, as given in the 

 present volume (p. 1, &c.,) he has adopted, with some slight alterations 

 in detail, the three fold division proposed by me in 1856. But we 

 must add, that the entire country in which these Vindhyan rocks are 

 typically seen, must be much more carefully examined, and the detail 

 of its structure more fully investigated, before any really trustworthy 

 conclusions can be arrived at. Hitherto the great practical value of the 

 coal deposits and the absolute necessity for ascertaining the limits of their 

 extension, have led to the examination of those rocks especially, and 

 in a oreat degree, to the exclusion of the others from any systematic 

 survey. And we cannot but anticipate that such detailed investigation 

 will introduce several modifications of our present views. 



From this great group no fossil evidence whatever has as yet been 

 obtained. And it is a most strange and remarkable fact, that thousands 

 of feet in thickness of beds of varied mineral character, fine sands, silts, 

 clays, and calcareous deposits, should thus be spread out in continuous 

 but slightly disturbed beds over immense areas ; that bed after bed, often 

 to the number of hundreds in succession, should abound with physical 

 proof of the shallowness of the water in which they were deposited ; 

 that the mineral texture of the rocks should be precisely that which 

 seems most favorable for the occurrence and preservation of organic 

 remains, and; still, that not a trace of these should yet have been 

 found, (a) 



The geological epoch of the Vindhyan group is therefore entirely un- 

 known, even relatively. 



We pass now to the next group. 



(a) I some years since saw, in the hands cf a friend, a broken specimen of a large and 

 distinct foot print. This was said to have been obtained from the continuation of these 

 rocks, south of Sasseram; but I could not ascertain any thing certain about it. 



