1 PROCEKDINGS OF THK GKOLOGICAL SOCIKTY. 



essays of geologicsl interest. Airioiig these, in the last year, is one of 

 the most valuable of recent additions to our knowledge of the geology 

 of India, a memoir on the Geology of the Nagpur State, by the Rev. 

 S. Hislop. A good deal had been done for the investigation of this 

 interesting district, and in a paper connnunicated to the Society by 

 Lieut. Sankey of the Madras Engineers, a detailed history was given 

 of the results of the researches there of geologists and collectors, 

 more especially Messrs. Hislop and Hunter, who had previously 

 transmitted to us an extensive suite of fossils. Mr. Hislop maintains, 

 supporting his opinion by forcible arguments, that the overlymg trap 

 of Central and Western India cannot have been poured out in the 

 bed of the ocean, but must have been erupted in a lake or chain of 

 lakes. The freshwater tertiaries that underlie the trap he considers 

 to be of Eocene age, perhaps too positively, although his view is con- 

 sistent with some indications afforded by the shells that occur in 

 them ; but it should be borne in mind by all describers of fluvi- 

 atile and lacustrine formations, that mere analogy of form is a very 

 bad guide in the determination of the epoch of freshwater mollusks. 

 " The sandstone of Central India, which appears to be identical with 

 the diamond sandstone of Southern India, belongs with its associated 

 shale and the Indian Coal-measures to the Lower Oolitic formation." 

 He suggests the probability of these sandstones being of freshwater 

 origin, and maintains that the Deccan exhibits no evidence of having 

 been submerged by the ocean since a period anterior to the Oolite. 



The description of the fossil animals of the nummulitic rocks of 

 India, by Vicorate d'Archiac and Jules Haime, elsewhere alluded to 

 when the monograph of Nummulites was mentioned, will, when 

 completed, form a manual of the highest value for the study of this 

 extensive formation in the East. The part already published contains 

 the account of the Corals and Echinoderms (as well as the Nummu- 

 lites), and is preceded by a review of the geology of the nummuhtic 

 region of India. This chapter is not a mere summary of what had 

 previously been known and published. It contains much that is new, 

 facts of high value derived from the researches of our associates, Vicary, 

 A. Fleming, Oldham, R. Strachey, Thomson, and J. D. Hooker. Sir 

 Roderick Murchison has been the means of placing these fresh data 

 at the disposal of M. dMrchiac. The result of these studies has 

 been the confirmation of the complete independence of the nummu- 

 litic in regard to the Cretaceous formations. " In the province of 

 Cutch, in Scinde, Beloochistan, the Punjaub, and along the slopes of 

 the Himalaya," remarks M. d'Archiac, "the beds beneath the num- 

 mulitic limestones exhibit nowhere the characters of any stage what- 

 soever of the chalk, whilst, wherever the substratum has been recog- 

 nized, it exhibits those of carbonaceous deposits with clays and sand- 

 stones belonging to the lower tertiary formation, and resting either 

 on Jurassic strata, or on more ancient rocks of which the age is yet 

 unsettled." 



Every student of Indian geology will be delighted at the appear- 

 ance of the 'Himalayan Journals' of Dr. Joseph Hooker, a work 

 that will do nuich to sustain the reputation of the British school of 



