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XXXVIII.— Ort the Fossils of the Eastern Portion of the Great Basaltic 

 District of India. 



By JOHN G. MALCOLMSON, Esq., F.G.S. 



[Read November 15 and December 6, 1837.] 



Illustrations, Plates XLVI. to XLVII. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. — Objects of the Memoir, p. 537. 

 General Sketch of the Physical Features, Hy- 

 drography and Geology of the Basaltic and 

 Granitic Districts, p. 538, et seq. 



The valiey of the Nerhudda, p. 538; Go- 

 davery, p. 539 ; Kistnah, p. 539 ; 

 Pennar, p. 540. 

 Granite platform between the Kistnah and Go- 

 davery, p. 544. 

 Iron ore, mines, and manufacture of the 

 steel, p. 546. 

 Description of the Sichel Hills, p. 548, et seq. 

 and of the Freshwater Shells, p. 550. 



Country between the Sichel Hills and Nagpoor, 

 p. 553, et seq. 



Origin of Minerals in Trap Rocks, p. 559. 

 Description of the Lonar Lake and analysis 

 of the water, p. 562. 

 Age of the diamond sandstone and argillaceous 



limestone, p. 568. 

 Inferences respecting the Freshwater Fossils, 



p. 569. 

 Other districts in India in which similar Fresh- 

 water Shells have been found, p. 5 70. 

 Relative age of the Laterite and Trap, p. 573. 



Introduction. 



The principal objects of the following paper are, to submit to the Society 

 an account of a series of fossils discovered in the eastern part of the great 

 basaltic district of India ; and to endeavour to arrive at some approximate con- 

 clusion respecting the geological era of this basaltic formation, which, extend- 

 ing over more than 200,000 square miles, conceals, breaks up, or alters all 

 the other rocks from beneath which it has forced its way. Of the eruptions to 

 which this rich and romantic country (formerly including several considerable 

 kingdoms) owes its existing form, a late President of this Society remarks*, that 

 the mind is almost lost in the contemplation "of their grandeur;" but "that 

 unfortunately the relative age of the eruptions must remain for the present 

 undetermined, no vestiges of secondary or tertiary formations having been de- 

 tected within the region." Having therefore, in 1832, collected a series of 

 lacustrine fossils, probably referable to the tertiary epoch, from a portion of 



* See Mr. Murcb.ison's Anniversary Address, Geological Proceedings, vol. i. p. 454. 



