1863.] OLDHAM — CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF BENGAL. 525 



these hills, hoping to have his conclusions. But, unfortunately, the 

 whole of this collection, which had cost much time and trouble, was 

 lost in its transmission to England. 



I could, however, no longer delay the description of these hills, 

 and in 1854 a short account of them was published in Calcutta. In 

 this I pointed out how incomplete any report on their structure 

 must unavoidably be, until the final results of the comparison of the 

 fossils were known. And I also said, " It is to me a source of great 

 regret that, owing to the season of the year during which I visited 

 these hills, I was unable to examine the lower parts of the ridge, or 

 to proceed along the base, where many points of great geological 

 interest still await solution. Densely covered as these portions are 

 with close grass-jungle, a sojourn there during the wet and hot 

 months of summer would be almost certain death to a European ; 

 and I was, therefore, obliged to forego my desire of visiting these 

 districts. It will be seen that in consequence several questions of 

 interest have been left still unsolved." 



This being the case, and all the valuable fossils, on which alone 

 any sound conclusions could be based, having been lost, I was com- 

 pelled to leave the question of their age undecided. The only section 

 I could, at that season, examine seemed to show continuous sequence 

 and conformity of the beds. And in describing this I added, " It is 

 possible that some of the sandstones may have been geologically 

 coeval with the upper or latest portions of the Cretaceous group of 

 Europe," thus leaving the age of these sandstones undecided, while, 

 from the abundance of Nummulites, there was no question as to the 

 age of the limestone resting on them. 



Further, at that time (1853), the knowledge of the fossils of the 

 beds forming the upper limits of the Cretaceous era, and of those 

 constituting the lowest limits of the Tertiary period, was infinitely 

 less perfect than it now is. 



I did not, however, forget the impression which those fossils had 

 left on my own mind, that they were Cretaceous, and I failed not to 

 take every opportunity to replace, so far as possible, the collections 

 which had been lost. I got, from year to year, some additions 

 through friends who had visited the place ; and in 1859 I despatched 

 one of the staff of the Geological Survey to these hills, in the hope 

 of being able to obtain a good collection. But the prevalence of 

 cholera drove him from the place ; and as with myself, so with others, 

 the extreme nature of the season during which they visited the hills 

 prevented much being done in the lower grounds. And, therefore, 

 almost the only additions I received were of fossils, often extremely 

 imperfect, from the limestone, which, occurring at the upper levels, 

 is easily accessible, but regarding the geological epoch of which there 

 was no doubt. 



During last year (1862), however, I received from W. L. Atkinson, 

 Esq., a small collection from Cherra Poonji, among which, in addi- 

 tion to the ordinary Limestone fossils, there were a few from the 

 lower sandstones ; and a few months later Dr. T. C. Jerdon brought 

 down another small collection, almost entirely from these sandstones. 



