xlvi PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



these two formations the principal beds are sandstones and limestones 

 of Cretaceous age ; and to this series probably belongs the great 

 Mahadeva group of the Puch-murri Hills. 



In Madras the examination of the quartzites of the Cudapah and 

 Kurnool districts has been satisfactorily continued by Messrs. King 

 and Foote. 



The regular issue, at the stated intervals of three months, of the 

 successive parts of the ' Palseontologia Indica' has been steadily main- 

 tained during the past year. The four parts issued have been in 

 continuation of the description of the splendid series of fossil Cepha- 

 lopoda from the Cretaceous rocks of Southern India. No less than 

 148 species have been described in this series, thus distributed : 

 Belernnites 3 species, Nautili 22, Ammonites 93, Scajjhites 3, Aniso- 

 ceras 11, Helicoceras 1, Turrilites 6, Hamites 2, Hamulina 1, Ptycho- 

 ceras 3, and Baculites 3 — a most remarkable fauna from a single 

 district. Of these, 38 are identical with species known in Europe 

 and elsewhere, and of these 38 species not less tlian 32 belong to the 

 Middle C:etaceous series of Europe. 



Amongst the memoirs of the Geological Survey of India I wiR 

 only further allude to the geological sections across the Himalayan 

 Mountains from Wangtu Bridge on the Eiver Sutlej to Sungdo on 

 the Indus, with an account of the formations in Spiti, accompanied by 

 a revision of all known fossils from that district, by Dr. Ferdinand 

 Stoliczka. 



I must also notice, however briefly, an account by Professor 

 Huxley of vertebrate fossils from the Panchet rocks near Ranigunj, 

 in Bengal, also published in the ' Palaeontologia Indica ; ' they con- 

 sist of numerous fragmentary and sometimes rolled bones, the ma- 

 jority of which are vertebrae. There are, however, some teeth, 

 small portions of crania, Vvith fragments of detached lower jaws. 

 They are of very great interest, as being the first remains of Yerte- 

 brata yet discovered in the great group of rocks associated with the 

 coal-bearing formations of Bengal. They were discovered by Messrs. 

 Blanford andTween in a stratum of conglomerate-sandstone exposed 

 in the Damuda river near Deoli, fifteen miles west of Eanigunj. They 

 appear to have been probably terrestrial, certainly not marine ; and 

 Professor Huxley is disposed to consider them as either of Triassic 

 age or as belonging to that fauna which will some day be discovered 

 as filling up the apparent break between the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic 

 forms of life — an opinion which coincides with that already expressed 

 by Dr. Oldham and Mr. Blanford. 



And while on the subject of Indian geology, I may here allude 

 to an account of the Palaeozoic and Secondary fossils collected by 

 Col. Richard Strachey in the Northern Himalaya, recently published 

 by Messrs. Salter and Blanford. They are chiefly derived from Niti 

 and its neighbouring passes. A large proportion of the Silurian 

 fossils are from Guneejunga in the Chorhoti Pass, at an elevation 

 of 17,000 to 17,500 feet above the sea. The existence of these 

 fossils was first made public by Col. Strachey in a paper read before 



