168 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 6, 



the European type. In the "N'iti Pass* and Spiti Valley (N. W. Hi- 

 malayas), New Zealand t, California J:, and JSTew Caledonia §, Triassic 

 rocks have yielded many of the characteristic marine fossils of the 

 Upper Trias of Austria, Avhere this formation is typically developed. 

 In South Africa, rocks of this age present somewhat exceptional 

 characters ; and if we regard the Kenper of Europe as indicating a 

 condition of things approximating to fresh water or brackish water ||, 

 the lacustrine deposits of the Karoo Desert will be analogous to it. 



The Jurassic series, which has its fullest development in Western 

 and Central Europe, is redaced, in the Mediterranean basin, to beds 

 representing the Lower and Middle Jurassic beds, from the Lias to 

 the Oxford Clay inclusive ; and in Eussia the Jurassic rocks consti- 

 tute but one formation. In extra-European countries, containing 

 representatives of the Jurassic rocks, there is, as in Eussia, no divi- 

 sion into formations as in Western Europe ; and the fauna represents 

 not that of one of these formations, but is equivalent to those of the 

 various groups of rocks, recalling, however, on the whole, the forms 

 of life prevalent in the Middle and Lower Oolites, as strikingly 

 illustrated by the Jurassic fauna of Cutch, India, of that of the Mti 

 Pass, of Thibet — in a less degree by that of New Zealand, and even 

 that of Spiti ; for though Dr. Stoliczka has endeavoured to establish a 

 definite succession of strata analogous to several members of the 

 European Juras, yet, in my opinion, he has failed to establish a true 

 correlation ; for the fossils which in Europe belong to determinate 

 stages in the geological scale are confusedly associated together in 

 the various members of the Spiti equivalents of the Jurassic rocks. 

 Trautschold divides the Jurassic rocks of Moscow into three zones ; 

 but in each occur fossils of various Jurassic formations, rendering it 

 impossible to pronounce on the equivalent of any one of them. This 

 appears to be the case with the Spiti beds. The marine Jurassic 

 strata of South Africa do not show any evidence of a departure from 

 the conditions that determined the distribution of life in extra- 

 European areas during Jurassic times. 



This remarkable world-wide distribution of the animal life of the 

 Middle Jurassic rocks is paralleled by that of the associated vegetable 

 remains^; for accompanying the Jurassic faunas of Cutch and 

 Uitenhage are plants generically identical with those of the phyti- 

 ferous beds of the Yorkshire coast, which occupy an horizon near 

 to the base of the Lower Oolites, and contain the most complete flora 

 of the Jurassic epoch. 



This relationship of the faunas and floras of extra-European 



" Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. v. pt. L p. 35 et seq. 



t Palaontologie von Neu-Seeland, 



J Palo3ontology of Cahfornia, vol. i. p. 19 et seq. 



§ Bull. Soc. Linn. ISTormandie, vol. viii. p. 332 et seq. 



jl See remarks on the Lettenkohle of the Xeuper and on the Triassic deposits 

 of Virginia, Connecticut, &c., in Prof. Rupert Jones's ' Monograph of the 

 Fossil Estheriffi,' Pal. Soc. 1862. 



^ The existence of Jurassic deposits on the east coast of Africa appears to be 

 proved by the occm'rence of Ammonites annularis, Rein., at Kisaludini, near 

 Mombas, 4° S. lat. (Quart. Journ. Greol. Soc. vol. xv. part ii. p. 17, 1859). 



