IxXXVi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



media, the southern shore of Cilicia between Seleucia and Alaya, and 

 the Anti-Taurus, and he refers them to the three following systems, — 

 Silurian, Devonian, upper and lower, and Mountain Limestone. With 

 regard to the Silurian rocks, however, it must be observed that M. de 

 Tchihatcheff only admits their existence on the Giant's Mountain 

 near Constantinople, on the authority of the notice published by 

 Mr. Strickland and myself in the Transactions of this Society. He 

 himself considers them to be Devonian. Now on this point I have 

 only to observe, that I am far from wishing to insist on the fact of 

 these beds being Silurian. The fossils are, I believe, still under the 

 consideration of M. de Verneuil ; but it must be remembered that at 

 the time when Mr. Strickland published his paper describing the 

 numerous fossils we had collected on the Giant's Mountain, the limits 

 between Silurian and Devonian were not then so sharply defined as 

 at present, and that the term Silurian was generally used to express 

 the greater portion of the lower fossiliferous grauwacke beds below 

 the Old Red Sandstone. 



The paper by Mr. W. K. Loftus, " On the Geology of the Turco- 

 Persian Frontier, and of the district adjoining," of which an abstract 

 has been already published in our Journal, derives additional interest 

 from the fact of its confirming the existence of the nummulitic and 

 other formations from the western shores of Europe through the 

 Alps, Bulgaria, and Asia Minor, to the very heart of India and the 

 mountains of Scinde. Mr. Loftus was attached to the joint commis- 

 sion of the English, Russian, Turkish, and Persian Governments 

 appointed for the purpose of fixing the boundaries of the respective 

 territories of the Sultan and the Shah. In this capacity he had 

 numerous opportunities of making repeated traverses across the 

 mountain range of Zagros and through the districts which form the 

 boundary of these two powers. Beneath the more recent deposits of 

 sand, gravel, and fluviatile clay, partly freshwater and partly of marine 

 character, Mr. Loftus describes the real tertiary deposits, which he 

 subdivides into two groups, the uppermost being the gypsiferous, and 

 below that, the nummulitic group. In both of these, characteristic 

 fossils occur, and both series of rocks are greatly disturbed. These 

 again are succeeded by the secondary rocks, the upper beds of which 

 contain cretaceous fossils. Masses of highly crystalline fetid blue 

 limestone which are found beneath the cretaceous rocks are referred 

 by "Mr. Loftus to the Lower Secondary Series. From what I have 

 seen of the fetid blue limestones in Asia Minor, I should have been 

 disposed to refer them to an older period. We then have in con- 

 tinued descending order, Palaeozoic rocks, metamorphic schists, 

 granite, and trap rocks. 



Our knowledge of the geology of India has made some progress 

 during the past season, although, I must confess, not equal to what 

 it might have been ; I had hoped that the introduction of railways 

 into the three Presidencies of India would long ere this have pro- 

 duced more fruit than it has yet done. We have received no in- 

 formation from these sources. But, on the other hand, one of our 

 own members, who has never visited India, has greatly contributed 



