ANNIVEESAEY ADDEESS OP THE PEESIDENT. xllX 



that many forms may have been destroyed by subsequent metamor- 

 phism, and that we must be necessarily ignorant of most of the 

 species which existed in the earher periods of the world's historj^ To 

 a certain limited extent such may be the case ; but if there really 

 existed in the Pal£eozoic period the same diversity of form in distant 

 areas as we find prevailing in the present day, it would be a strange 

 coincidence, and contrary to every doctrine of probability, to find 

 among the forms which had escaped destruction, and which had 

 come under the notice of the geologist, precisely those which were 

 either identical or analogous in different areas. Is it not, on the 

 other hand, more probable that during the Palaeozoic period, when 

 the first sedimentary deposits were formed in the waters of the 

 ocean, the conditions of life were more similar over a larger portion 

 of the earth's surface than during any subsequent period, when 

 partial disturbances, dislocations, and other changes had destroyed 

 that uniformity which at first prevailed? 



But I must return to the Himalayan fossils. Mr. Salter pub- 

 lishes a list of the fossils from_ the Upper Triassic (Keuper) rocks in 

 the Himalayas, with the respective localities in Europe of such as 

 are identical ; from which it appears that, out of thirty-six species, 

 fourteen occur in the Keuper beds of the Austrian Alps. Amongst 

 the species described are — Ammonites 11 species, Ortlioceras 1, Na- 

 tica 1, Monotis 1, Pecten 2, Lima 1, Exogyra 1, Athyris 2, Bhyncho- 

 nella 1, Waldheimia 1, Spirifera 2. Mr. Salter remarks on the sin- 

 gular fact that scarcely one of the Triassic fossils obtained from the 

 Spiti district, and brought home last year by Prof. Oldham, corre- 

 sponds with those of the Niti Pass, though 100 miles nearer to the 

 Alps. He suggests that in the Spiti valley we may probably have 

 a different and an older group. 



The Cephalopoda of the Jurassic rocks are next described by 

 Prof. Blanford of Calcutta; they consist of nineteen species, of 

 which eighteen are Ammonites and one a Belemnite. The identity 

 of Indian species with those of Europe does not appear so great as 

 in the case of the underlying rocks. The author says that, with 

 the exception of Ammonites biplex, Sow., and A. triplicatus, Sow., 

 no well-identified European species occurs among Col. Strachey's 

 fossils, although many of the latter are closely allied to European 

 types. 



Mr. Salter then proceeds to describe the Gasteropoda and Bivalves 

 from the same range of strata ; these, however, are of great thick- 

 ness, and, as he observes, probably include several members of the 

 Jurassic series. The fossils here described are — Turho 1 sp., 

 Chemnitzia 1, Ostrea 2, Avicula 1, Monotis 1, Pecten 6, Lima 2, 

 Inoceramus 1, Modiola 1, Myoplioria 1, Nuculq 1, Mactromya 1, 

 Cardium 1, Astarte 1, Ciicidlcea 1, Anatina 1, -Terehratula 3, Kliyn-- 

 clionella 2. The work concludes with an interesting postscript by 

 Mr. Blanford, referring to the works of Prof. Oppel and Dr. Sto- 

 liczka, the latter of whom has recently visited the Spiti valley, and 

 has made a more complete examination of the fossiliferous forma- 

 tions of that part of India than had been accomplished by any pre- 



TOL, XXII. d 



