322 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 



beds represent some portion of the older parts of the great Mesozoic 

 period. fa) 



Such is the evidence from fossils. Have we any from physical charac- 

 ter and position ? We have already alluded to the identity of the fossil 

 Zamice. found in these Rajmahal beds, with those obtained from Cutch, 

 by Capt. Grant, and described by Mr. Morris, in 1837 : an identity con- 

 firmed by Mr. Morris himself after careful examination of the specimens. 

 There are only two other genera noticed, a fucoides — erroneously so des- 

 cribed, I believe from an imperfectly preserved and injured specimen, — and 

 a tycopodites which I believe is identical with some from the " Rajmahal" 

 beds. We must, therefore, admit that this " Rajmahal" group is identi- 

 cal in general geological age, with the group of rocks in Cutch, described 

 by Captain Grant under the name of, " Sandstone and clay with beds of 

 Coal." Now these beds with coal, in Cutch, are by Captain Grant stated 

 to be quite distinct from, and to be unconformably covered by the series 

 called by him, " Laminated series or Upper Secondary Formation," in 

 which upper series occur all those well preserved fossil shells described 

 in the same paper by Sowerby, and the oolitic age of which cannot be 

 doubted. The group appears, in fact, to represent a lower oolitic era, 

 the whole series of molluscous remains (in connection with other fossils 

 also described by Sowerby) indicating an epoch extending from the 

 Cornbrash to the great oolite of England. 



The physical relations of these beds with those containing the fossil 

 plants were not very distinctly made out by Captain Grant ; but if his 

 description can be trusted, it would appear certain that the beds con- 

 taining these undoubtedly oolitic forms of marine mollusca, rest upon, 

 unconformably, and are, therefore, more recent than, the beds with fossil 

 plants and coal. In one case, Captain Grant states, that they " certainly 



(a) We would add that among a small collection of Keuper plants from Veitlahm near 

 Culmback Bavaria, lately procured for our Museum in Calcutta, are several almost undi&- 

 tinguishable from some of our Rajmahal plants. 



