668 J. G. Malcolmson, Esq., on the Fossils of 



core mountains, show that these inferences have been too hastily drawn, 

 when such gigantic generalizations were to be established. 



Age of the Diamond Sandstone and Argillaceous Limestone. 



With regard to the age of the diamond sandstone and argillaceous lime- 

 stones, my own conviction is, that they belong to the more ancient secondary, 

 or even transition rocks ; an opinion, which is not at all contradicted by their 

 frequent occurrence in horizontal strata, as they could not have been depo- 

 sited in the situations in which they are now found. The facts I have stated, 

 will enable others to estimate the correctness of an impression founded on the 

 structure, geological relations, and occasional nearly vertical position of the 

 strata. On this subject, I would express no decided opinion, but recommend 

 an examination of the junction of these formations with the stratified and un- 

 stratified primary rocks, with a view to this question. 



The sandstones and limestones of Bundlecund and Malwa correspond in 

 many particulars with those of the south of India, and have been considered 

 by all writers as belonging to the same formations. The sandstone. Major 

 Franklin considers to be the same as the saliferous sandstone of England* ; to 

 which it has been objected, that the salt ditfused through the soil of Bundle- 

 cund may not be derived from this source, as it has never been discovered in 

 that rock. 1 have also ascertained that salt occurs in all the formations of 

 India, from granite to recent alluvium. I have, indeed, never met with a 

 saline spring in the sandstone, but this I consider to be accidental, that rock 

 being generally placed in inaccessible situations. I have, however, found thin 

 seams of salt, interstratified with the upper schistose layers of the argillaceous 

 limestone, in the immediate neighbourhood of a cliff of sandstone 300 feet in 

 height, between the lower beds of which a similar schist was interposed. A 

 moreimportantobjection toMajorFranklin's opinion of the diamondsandstones 

 belonging to the new red sandstone is, that in the peninsula, this sandstone, 

 throughout 800 miles of latitude, and half as much of longitude, is superior 

 to the limestone he has called " Lias." Nor can I find sufficient proof in his 

 memoirs, or in other papers on the country between the Nerbudda and the 

 Ganges, that this limestone reposes directly on the sandstone ; and it is evi- 

 dent, that no inference can be founded on its occurrence at a higher level in a 

 country so much altered by denudation and the intrusion of eruptive rocks. 

 But should it be hereafter found, that the limestone in certain parts of Bundle- 

 cund does actually occupy a higher geological position, the fact would not be 

 conclusive against the diamond sandstones of the north and south, belonging 

 * Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, Vol. iii.. Part I. 



