ANNIVERSAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDEN^T. xlvii 



the Geological Society in 1851 *, in which the physical features of the 

 mountain district are fully described, and the generic characters of 

 the fossils are indicated by Mr. Salter. In the work now under 

 consideration Mr. Salter says, " With regard to the Palaeozoic rocks 

 of India so little was known at the time of Col. Strachey's researches 

 that to have secured a fossiliferous base was a great stride in the 

 geology of India. The list of genera furnished by myself to the 

 paper above quoted sufficiently indicated the presence of a Lower 

 Silurian group, which, while its fossils agreed in general character 

 with those of Europe, was quite distinct in species. This fact sup- 

 plies another proof of the existence, at this early period, of marine 

 natural-history provinces like those of the present day. The sub- 

 division of the old ocean-fauna, easily recognizable over many areas 

 of Silurian rocks, becomes less conspicuous in the Devonian, es- 

 pecially in the upper part, and had become nearly obliterated in Car- 

 boniferous times." 



Mr. Salter observes that the Silurian species are all new. Of 

 Trilobites there are eight species, all except one belonging to well- 

 known European genera, the forms resembling those in our own 

 slate rocks ; they represent seven genera, one of which, Prosopiscus, 

 is new ; Tentaculites and Serpulites also occur. The Cephalopoda 

 are but few, yet their general characters remind us of those of 

 other Silurian regions. Eight species are described, belonging to 

 six genera : Nautilus (?), Ct^rtoceras, Lituites, Orthoceras, Theca, and 

 Bellerophon ; they are almost all from the Chorhoti Pass. The 

 Gasteropoda comprise ten species, representing six genera, and are 

 also chiefly from the same pass. The Lameliibranchiata are but few, 

 and represent three or four species of the genus Ctenodonta. The 

 Brachiopoda are here also, as Mr. Salter observes, the most abun- 

 dant shells of the Silurian deposit ; under generic forms familiar 

 to every student of the older rocks, and (although identical with 

 none of them) representing even the common species of Wales and 

 Shropshire, they stamp the formation as accurately as if we could 

 trace the connexion of the beds themselves. This coincidence of 

 numerous genera, and, so far as we know, of specific groups peculiar 

 to the Lower Silurian, is very remarkable and satisfactory when 

 such remote districts are compared. Twenty-six species are here 

 described, belonging to the following genera : Linc/ula 2, Lepicena 

 5, Stropliomena -9, Orthis 6, with several varieties of 0. Thahil, 

 besides other species not sufficiently perfect to admit of a satisfactory 

 description. Bryozoa are also abundant, and appear to have been 

 precisely of the same nature in the Indian as in the European areas : 

 as in our own slate rocks, the narrow bifurcating forms and broad 

 foliaceous species are found together. Two species of Splicerospongia 

 occur amongst the Amorphozoa. Crinoid stems of several species 

 have also been found, but none perfect enough to be worth describing. 

 The genera Choetetes and Heliolites have also been found amongst the 

 Zoophyta. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 292. 



