ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixvii 



coloured shales, which Prof. Forbes pronounces, on examining the 

 fossils, to be unequivocally of the age of our Oxford Clay. A pecu- 

 liar and characteristic form of Ammonite found here has also been 

 discovered in Cutch and Scinde. 



But, as Captain Strachey has remarked, the most striking and 

 novel feature in this section is the existence of a great Tertiary de- 

 posit at the height of 14,000 or 16,000 feet above the sea. These 

 beds form the surface of a plain, about 120 miles long, and from 15 

 to 60 miles wide, on the high land lying on the northern side of the 

 watershed from which the waters descend to the Ganges on the south, 

 and into the Sutlej on the north. Towards its western end, the latter 

 river has cut a ravine to the depth of nearly 3000 feet. The section 

 made by this and similar ravines enables the observer to see the 

 nature of the beds and their stratification. They consist of boulders, 

 gravel, and finer argillaceous or arenaceous matter, horizontally 

 stratified. 



That these beds belong to the Tertiary period appears to be proved 

 beyond doubt by the remains of several of the large Mammalia of 

 that period. Unfortunately, however, these remains are too imperfect 

 to admit of their being identified with those of the Siwalik Hills. At 

 present, therefore, we have very imperfect data for judging of the 

 particular part of the Tertiary period to which these remains may 

 belong. There is also another important point still in doubt. There 

 is no evidence at present to decide whether this deposit is marine or 

 freshwater. The author inclines to the opinion that it is marine. 



It is not too much, I think, to say of this section, that it is the 

 most magnificent one which geologists have ever had presented to 

 them from one locality. It embraces an enormous series of the lower 

 non-fossiliferous strata, distinctly stratified, a large Palseozoic series, 

 together with an equally important development of secondary strata, 

 with a smgularly striking approximation to absolute order of super- 

 position ; nor can I conceive a section better adapted to silence the 

 geological sceptic as to the immense revolutions which our globe has 

 undergone, or the enormous periods of time which have been neces- 

 sary to effect them. We have here a sketch of a noble picture for 

 the geological eye ; and, although its details may never be filled up 

 in our day, we may still contemplate it in our imagination, and recog- 

 nize its importance. I rejoice in this opportunity of expressing my 

 own sense, and, I feel sure, not less the sense which you also enter- 

 tain, of the valuable service which Captain Strachey has rendered us. 

 Nor can I help commending him for the modesty, as well as for the 

 perspicuity with which he has given the details of his paper. We 

 may envy him the interest which must have attached to his researches 

 in so novel a field of geological inquiry, and the views of nature in the 

 magnificent aspects under which she must often present herself in 

 these varied, but often wild and desolate regions ; but we must recol- 

 lect. Gentlemen, that these regions can only be approached, for the 

 purposes of detailed research, with the sacrifice of personal comfort, 

 and a subjection to physical labour, and frequently to physical suf- 

 ering, which many would be unable to bear, and few are willing to 



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