ANNIYEESABY ADJJEESS OF THE PEESIDENT. 97 



Arialur beds of Southern India (Senonian) contain 26 species, of which 

 4 only are known from Eurox)ean Cretaceous deposits, and of these 4 

 2 are doubtfully identified. Not a single species is common to the 

 iNerbudda and S. Indian Cretaceous rocks ; but this is far less impor- 

 tant than the fact that the former contain 75 per cent, of European 

 forms, and the latter a percentage certainly not exceeding 40 *, and 

 probably considerably less. The fauna of the S. Indian beds generally 

 is widely distinct from the Cenomanian forms of Europe, that of the 

 Ferbudda beds, so far as known, is very similar. It is a reason- 

 able conclusion, as I pointed out ten years ago f, that the Nerbudda 

 beds were deposited in a sea in direct communication with the 

 Cenomanian sea of Europe, and the Trichinopoly beds in waters 

 that were separated by a land barrier. 



But the European Cenomanian fauna is found again in Southern 

 Arabia and in Palestine. The Trichinopoly fauna recurs in the 

 Khasi hills, south of Assam, 1200 miles N.E. of Trichinopoly, and 

 again in Natal, more than 4000 miles to the S.W. ; and it appears 

 almost a necessary inference that these points were on the south 

 coast of a tract of land that extended across the Indian Ocean. 

 Since I first suggested this view in 1879, it has been strongly sup- 

 ported by Prof. Martin Duncan's revision of the Kerbudda Echino- 

 dermata. 



Nor is this all. Erom a study of the Jurassic fauna of the world, 

 that is to say from the consideration of an entirely different group 

 of facts, ISTeumayr has come to precisely the same conclusion as to a 

 land union between India and S. Africa across the Indian Ocean J, 

 and this view is especially founded on the Neocomian fauna of 

 Uitenhage §, in Cape Colony. It should, however, be noticed that 

 near India, very possibly to the eastward, but not, I think, precisely 

 in the direction indicated by Neumayr, there was probably in 

 uppermost Jurassic or lowest Cretaceous times, some communication 

 between the seas to the North and South. This would explain the 

 occurrence of a few identical species of Mollusca, found in very high 

 Jurassic or low Neocomian beds in Cutch on the one hand, and near 

 the mouth of the Godavari on the other. A shallow strait would 



* It must not be forgotten that this jjercentage is higher in the Cenomanian 

 Echinoderumta than in other groups, that the total percentage of European 

 forms in the Echinodermata of the S. Indian Cretaceous rocks is only 18 per 

 cent., and that of European species in the whole fauna 16. 



t See Man. Geol. India, Introduction, p. xxxix, & p. 297. 



+ Denkschr. k.-k. Ak. Wiss. Wien, math.-nat. CI. Bd. 1. (1885), p. 132, 

 map 1. . .... § Loc. cit. p. 54. 



