HISLOP AND HUNTER — NAGPUR. . 3/7 



territory, but of both these with those across the Atlantic. Our in- 

 vestigations in the resemblances of the sandstone fossils show that the 

 Nagpur fossiliferous strata are connected with the Richmond carboni- 

 ferous formation by Tceniopteris magnifolia, while the Mangali fos- 

 siliferous strata are still more closely linked to it by the discovery of 

 what appear to be Aspidiaria, Knorria, and the interesting groups 

 of large and small Limnadiadce. Here, then, we perceive that the 

 lower beds at both of these Indian localities bear a relation to the 

 Virginian coal-measures, characterized by an apparent specific identity 

 of fossils ; and, though the genera of which the species seem to be 

 identical are not the same in both cases, yet it is obvious from the 

 sort of ex cequali argument which we may be permitted to use, that 

 these lower beds must stand pretty closely connected with each other. 

 But I do not wish to push to an extreme reasoning on a point which 

 the progress of investigation here may soon elucidate by finding the 

 strata under consideration in juxtaposition. Meanwhile I consider 

 myself warranted in asserting, that our Mangali rocks cannot at all 

 events be older than the Jurassic, if under that term the Lias is also 

 included. Indeed the head of the Labyrinthodont tends to com- 

 municate to them a Triassic aspect ; but, if the Jurassic character of 

 their abundant flora be taken as the real indication of the age of these 

 rocks, we arrive at a conclusion which brings out the interesting fact, 

 that the family of Labyrinthodonts, instead of being confined to the 

 Coal and Trias, survived (in the East) until the period of the Lower 

 Oolite. 



Regarding the age of our shale c, which there is every reason to 

 believe underlies the coarse and fine sandstones a and b, I have little 

 to say more than that it cannot be much older than these. The 

 occurrence of worm-tracks, as well as of faint traces of Phyllotheca, 

 will not allow me to consider it anything but part of the same Jurassic 

 formation. But as I have endeavoured to show that the coal-measures 

 of Burdwan are equivalents of our plant-bearing beds, and therefore 

 belong to the Lower Oolitic group, it will be necessary to make a 

 few remarks to establish the correctness of this view. 



On the age of the coal-measures of Bengal two opinions have been 

 submitted to the public within the last four years : — one in 1 850 by 

 Dr. M'Clelland in his " Geological Survey," and the other in the 

 course of the present year by Dr. J. Hooker in his interesting 

 ** Himalayan Journals*." 



Dr. M'Clelland's sentiments, which in 1846 were very decided as 

 to the true Palaeozoic character of our Eastern coalf, seem to have 

 remained the same at the period of his more recent publication on 

 the subject ; for we find him in his " Survey," while admitting the 



[* This portion of the paragraph on the ** Age of the Sandstone " has heen 

 remodelled since the reading of the Paper, so as to introduce the necessary 

 references to the opinions published by Dr. J. D. Hooker in his most interesting 

 work on the Himalayas. — June 14 and Sept. 6, 1854.] 



t " There cannot, however, be a doubt as to its belonging to the true coal- 

 formation, from the nature of the coal itself, as well as of the beds with which it 

 is associated." — Secretary of the Calcutta Coal Committee on the Coal of the 

 Great Tenasserim River, in Committee's Report, p. 138. Calcutta, 1846. 



