1848.] MURCHTSON ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE ALPS. 303 



The nummulitic rocks which occupy large spaces in Egypt are all 

 unquestionably of this same eocene age, as proved by their fauna. In 

 a collection of fossils recently sent to the Royal Museum at Turin, 

 M. Bellardi and myself recognized at a glance the eocene group of 

 the Vicentine*. 



Besides the Nummulina millecaput and N . placentula, well known in 

 the Alps, these Egyptian rocks contain the Bulla Fortisii, Al. Brongn., 

 Turritella vittata, Lamk., T. imbricataria^ Rostellaria Jissurella and 

 Nerita conoidea, forms which are known in the Paris basin, in the 

 Vicentine and at Nice. All the other Egyptian fossils, including 

 Crustacea and Echinoderms, if not identical, are analogous to those 

 of the supracretaceous group of the Alps and Italy. The same types 

 of Pecten, of small, spinose Spondyli and Cardiacese, with Cassis and 

 many univalves, complete the group. 



Following this grand nummulitic formation from Egypt and Asia 

 Minor f across Persia by Bagdad to the banks of the Indus, we long 

 ago knew, from the communications of Capt. Grant, how in Cutch it 

 is copiously loaded with fossils, which from the drawings and descrip- 

 tions of Mr. James Sowerby J have all a tertiary aspect and relations. 

 Subsequently the labours of Capt. Vicary, as recorded in our Pro- 

 ceedings §, have greatly added to our acquaintance with the range of 

 these nummulitic rocks, which, in the form of limestones and sand- 

 stones, compose the great mass of the highly inclined strata of the 

 mountain ranges of Hala and Solyman that separate Scinde from 

 Persia, and extending from south to north, form the passes leading 

 to Cabul. From collections recently sent home to me by Capt. Vicary 

 it now appears, that some members of the same nummulitic group 

 wrap round also from west to east in the Sub-Himalayan tracts in 

 which Sabathoo is situated ; and are said to reoccur, even in the 

 kingdom of Assam. No geologist can view the fossils of this vast 

 Eastern region (including nearly all the Punjaub, and even a large 

 portion of AfFghanistan) without being convinced that they belong 

 to the same member of the series as the eocene of the Alps and 

 Italy ; for, with the same absence of ammonites, belemnites, hamites, 

 or any cretaceous types, they exhibit six or seven species of num- 



Serpula spirultsa, and other well-known eocene forms. The same order seems to 

 prevail throughout Spain, even into the province of Malaga, and everywhere the 

 nummulitic eocene, as in the Alps, has undergone the same flexures as the cretaceous 

 rocks, whilst the fossils of the two formations are quite distinct. — June 1, 1849. 



* Not more than half of this collection had been critically examined and com- 

 pared when I left Turin in June 1848. I may here add, that a reference to Rus- 

 segger's sections and description of the Mokattan Hills, near Cairo, would also lead 

 inevitably to the inference, that the nummulitic rocks of Egypt are of eocene age 

 (see Russegger, Reise in Europa, Asien und Afrika : Stuttgart ; with fol. atlas). In 

 short, this work affords evidence of the existence of true cretaceous rocks, fol- 

 lowed by both eocene and younger tertiary deposits. Still M. Russegger, like 

 most of his contemporaries, classes the nummulite rocks with the chalk. 



t See Hamilton's Asia Minor, vol. i. pp. 405, 410, 500. M. TchihatchefT will 

 extend our knowledge on this point when he publishes the results of his recent 

 travels. 



J Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. vol. v. Second Ser. p. 289 and plates- 



§ Journal Geol. Soc. Lond. vol. iii. p. 331. 



y2 



