AKNITERSAET ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. xlv 



satisfactorily than ttie depression necessary to explain them under 

 the iceberg theory. In the latter case a depression of 5000 feet 

 would be required, whereas there is no evidence of any greater de- 

 pression than about 600 feet having taken place. The direction of 

 the moving mass of ice appears, on the evidence of the strice observed 

 in New Brunswick, to have been nearly north and south ; but as 

 these strice can only show us the last record of the moving mass, 

 there is no reason for supposing that its direction may not have 

 varied under different conditions at former periods. 



Geological Survey of India. 



Under the able superintendence of Professor Oldham, the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India has .been prosecuted with as much ardour 

 and zeal as was compatible with the difficulties of the country and 

 the limited means at his disposal ; this latter difficulty was, how- 

 ever, reduced by an increased rate of allowance for travelling expenses 

 having been subsequently accorded by the Viceroy. Other difficulties 

 were also caused by several members of the staff being detached for 

 special service. 



Amongst the more interesting results of the past season, as appears 

 from the 'Annual Report,' is the discovery, by Mr.Medlicott in Assam, 

 that, to the south of the River Brahma-poutra, there are widely-spread 

 and highly valuable beds of Coal, of most excellent quality, superior to 

 any other known Indian coals, which offer promise of yielding a plenti- 

 ful supply of good fuel. In Central India, Mr. Mallet has carried 

 out a careful revision of the boundaries of the Vindhyan rocks to the 

 north of the Nerbudda valley, and has extended his survey to the 

 western extremity of the same valley. Mr. Hackett has completed 

 the geological examination of the country included in the first sheet 

 of the Gwalior map. Mr. Mallett and Dr. Stoliczka have been em- 

 ployed in working out the structure of the higher Himalayan regions. 

 The fossils from Spiti and Rupshu had been long known, but much 

 confusion and u.ncertainty existed respecting the exact localities 

 from which they were obtained ; these have now been worked out 

 on the spot, and the results will soon be published. It is, however, 

 already known that undoubted representatives of acknowledged Euro- 

 pean series — the Silurian, Carboniferous, Triassic, Rhsetic, Lower and 

 Middle Lias, Jurassic (probably of three distinct periods), and Creta- 

 ceous — have been proved to occur in these mountain heights. The 

 fossils have been carefully examined, and the 200 varieties or so- 

 called species have been reduced to 164. Amongst the Cephalopoda 

 alone no less than 24 out of 54 supposed species must be suppressed, 

 ha^dng been already described under different names. In Bombay 

 the progress of the Survey has been delayed by various causes, but 

 much good work has also been done there. The Survey of the 

 Nerbudda vallej^ has been completed, as well as of a large tract of 

 country south of that river. The prevailing surface-rock of the 

 district, except the alluvial deposits, is, as in the Deccan area, trap ; 

 the basement or bottom rocks are chiefly granitic or gneissic. Between 



