Mr. Kate on Fossiliferous Beds in Southern India. 87 



they originally grew. They must also have constituted a very different order of 

 vegetation from that which now flourishes on the eastern coast of India. The 

 most common tree now growing in the neighbourhood of these ancient woods is 

 the Tamarind, and from this circumstance and some fancied resemblance in 

 the colouring of the stone, the petrified trees are generally known both to the 

 European and native inhabitants of that part of the coast by the name of Tamarind 

 wood : but their vast straight stems bear no resemblance whatever to that tree, and 

 it is easy to suppose that they must have belonged to some gigantic member of 

 the Pine tribe. 



The fossiliferous beds to which I would next call attention are situated in the 

 district of Trichinopoly, and about thirty miles from that town. They are about 

 100 miles from Pondicherry and sixty miles from the sea: as I have never been 

 able to visit this spot, I regret that I am unable to give any accurate description 

 of these beds ; but I am told that, like the deposit in the neighbourhood of Pon- 

 dicherry, the Trichinopoly limestone occupies but a small area. I have, however, 

 had several cart-loads of the rock forwarded to me, and believe that I am thus 

 enabled to lay before the Society a complete series of the fossils which it contains. 

 It is a fine dark limestone ; and the shells, which are exceedingly numerous, stand 

 out in relief on a weathered surface of the stone, and being perfectly white, they 

 contrast beautifully with the black matrix; but when the stone is fresh broken, 

 the shells not unfrequently retain much of their original colour, and, generally, all 

 their pearly lustre. 



There is still another deposit of fossiliferous limestone to which I beg now to 

 direct attention, forming perhaps a link between the two limestones already no- 

 ticed. It is situated in the district of Verdachellum in Southern Arcot, about forty 

 miles from the coast and fifty from Pondicherry. Lieut. Newbold, of the Madras 

 Army, remarked, in one of the Madras ' Journals of Literature and Science,' that 

 he thought it highly probable that the fossiliferous limestone of Pondicherry ex- 

 tended into the Verdachellum district. It was owing to this suggestion of Lieut. 

 Newbold that I was induced to make inquiries in that direction. The natives of 

 the country are so little observant of circumstances of this sort, that it was long 

 before I was enabled to obtain any information respecting it. A gentleman resi- 

 dent there forwarded to me, however, a short time before I left India, specimens 

 of a limestone which he had accidentally discovered, containing Pectens, and a few 

 fragments of other shells, which were sufficient to induce me, as soon as possible, 

 to visit that part of the country. Verdachellum is situated on a formation of red 

 sand, containing rounded quartz-pebbles, occasionally passing into conglomerate, 

 precisely resembling the red sand formations near Pondicherry. It contains no 

 marine fossils, but I have obtained one specimen of silicified wood. About six 



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