Col. Sykes on Fossils from Cutch. Kill 



tion to which they belong. If generalizations in geology in Europe be sub- 

 ject to exceptions, we shall run no small risk in applying European analogies 

 to India; where we find coal occurring without the carboniferous series — a 

 total absence of the cretaceous formation, and trap occupying whole regions 

 without the intervention of any sedimentary rock, and without the appear- 

 ance of modern or even ancient volcanos. Were we to judge of the N.W. 

 coast of India in the neighbourhood of the localities of the above specimens, 

 from its general flatness, its salt marshes, and the extent of the Runn, we 

 might consider it as recently emerged from the ocean, and comparatively mo- 

 dern fossih hells might have been looked for. The inhabitants, indeed, con- 

 sider the surface of inland water as gradually contracting, and the period may 

 arrive when the Runn shall disappear. If English analogues be our guide, 

 the fossil specimens I have submitted to the Society would seem to belong to 

 the secondary rocks ; Ammonites, Trigonice, and Grypheea have been found 

 only in formations below the tertiary systems, — we may not therefore err in 

 considering the formations of Cutch to be secondary. Quarries of fine cry- 

 stallized marble are found at Nuggur Parker on the north bank of the Runn. 

 The strata of Cutch have been much disturbed by the intrusion of igneous 

 rocks, which in fact are the highest in the country, and it is still subject to 

 earthquakes. The country furnishes an abundant supply of iron ore. It is 

 much to be regretted that the East India Company have not deputed a 

 scientific person to examine Cutch and Goojrat, as the cost of the undertaking- 

 would very probably be amply repaid by the discovery of their mineral trea- 

 sures ; and a yet higher advantage would be obtained in the light which 

 would be thrown on the history of the earth*. 



iVofe.— November 4th, 1837. 



When the specimens alluded to in the preceding notice were first submitted 

 to the examination of the Society, the unexpected resemblance which some 

 of them were found to bear to English oolitic fossils, gave rise to doubts 

 whether English shells had not accidentally got into Capt. Smee's collection. 

 To clear up these doubts, I wrote to my friend Colonel Pottingerf, the British 

 Minister in Cutch, to collect for me, far and wide, all the organic remains to 

 be met with. Colonel Pottinger, with that zeal which always characterizes 



* This wish has been to a very great extent fulfilled by the labours of Capt. Grant, 1839. 

 t Now Sir Henry Pottinger, Bart. 



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