HISLOP AND HUNTER NAGPUR. 365 



having a little carbonaceous matter covering some of the vegetable 

 remains. The fossils themselves, however, whether animal or 

 vegetable, bear a remarkable resemblance to those which have been 

 brought to light at Nagpur. Thus we find among them a fresh- 

 water tortoise, — the elytra of insects, — an abundance of Cyprides, one 

 species of which appears to correspond with the C cylindrica (Sow.), 

 first found by Malcolmson, — a few indistinct impressions of shells 

 like Melania, — fruits and seeds, though not of the same genera as 

 ours, — ensiform endogenous leaves, like the Nagpur specimens, — 

 cormiform roots, which differ from ours only in being larger, — and 

 an abundance of dicotyledonous wood. 



At Padpangali or Pangadi near Rajamundry, not far from the 

 mouth of the Godavari, there are found some outlying trap hills, 

 which Gen. Cullen pointed out to Dr. Benza as fossiliferous. That 

 gentleman visited the place, and described one of the em.inences as 

 consisting at its base of sandstone, which is overlaid by amygdaloid 

 veined with jasper, then a limestone deposit with fossils, and finally 

 a sheet of basalt. The fossils were stated by Dr. Benza to be partly 

 marine, and partly freshwater ; but, as his statement was made at a 

 time when not much attention was paid to the distinction between 

 these two classes of shells, it was supposed that it might be incorrect. 

 I confess that I myself was guilty of this wrong to the memory of 

 an able geologist. However, I took steps to discover the truth, and 

 through my friend Lieut. Stoddart, employed in connection with the 

 Godavari public works, I have ascertained, I am happy to say, that 

 Dr. Benza is substantially right. His Oysters were real oysters, 

 though his " Ampullarise " most probably belonged to some species 

 of Physa. " On only one of these hills," says my intelligent in- 

 formant, " could I find any Oysters ; but there, I must say, they 

 were as plentiful as stones." At the foot of a hill opposite to this, 

 Mr. Stoddart found several kinds of shells, and among them a Physa 

 identical with a species common around Nagpur, which was in the 

 same block with a Chemnitzia. There seems to be a great variety of 

 molluscous remains at this locality, and it would well deserve a 

 longer investigation than my kind friend was able to give it * . 



Here then we have the best proof which similarity of position and 

 specific identity of contained fossils can afford, that the deposit 

 enclosed in trap at Padpangali is properly contemporaneous with our 

 freshwater deposit in Central India, although a majority of its 

 organisms are truly marine. It is evident that it was here our great 

 collection of fresh water, stretching either in one continuous sheet or 

 interruptedly a distance of 1050 miles, in a direct line from Rajm.ahal 

 to Bombay, and of 660 miles from N. to the neighbourhood of Pad- 

 pangali, discharged itself by an estuary into the sea. Whether this 

 great expanse of freshwater was one or many lakes, cannot now be 

 determined, in consequence of the disappearance of trap from many 

 situations where once it must have existed, but I am persuaded that 

 the more careful the exploration made in the great basaltic region 



* A small series of fossils from Padapangali sent by the authors comprises 

 Ostrea, Cardium, Venus, Chemnitzia, and NerincBa ? — Ed. 



