506 PEOCEEDnfGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 17, 



by a sloping beach about 300 feet in width. The lowest stratum in 

 the chff is a blue rock, upon which is a bed, 4 feet thick, largely com- 

 posed of a gigantic species of oyster [Ostrea Patagonica, D'Orb.*) ; 

 upon this rests a shelly conglomerate, composed almost entirely of 

 shells, and rendered hard and coherent by a calcareous cement. The 

 upper portion of the chff, from the top of this conglomerate to the 

 summit, consists of a blue sandy clay containing pebbles and small 

 shells. The actual height of the cliff at this point is 280 feet. 



7. On JuEASSic Deposits in the ^oeth-west HniALATA. By Ferdi- 

 i^A^D Stolicze:a, Ph.D., F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Geological 

 Survey of India. 



Jui ]\Ir. Tate's paper on the South- African fossils t several statements 

 occur which, if admitted as correct, would render very discouraging 

 the prospects of an accurate study and the determination of the age 

 of Jurassic rocks in extra-European countries. I do not at present 

 wish to pronounce an opinion upon Mr. Tate's discussions and ideas 

 on the " distribution of the lower members of the Mesozoic rocks over 

 the surface of the earth, and the laws that apparently were in opera- 

 tion during their deposition ;" but I may be allowed to say a few 

 words with reference to Himalayan Jurassic rocks, with which I am 

 personally acquainted. 



The rocks to which I allude are those of the Spiti valley and the 

 neighbouring districts of the north-west Himalaya. Mr. Tate 

 remarks (loc.cit. p. 168), "for though Dr. Stohczka has endeavoured 

 to establish a definite succession of strata analogous to several mem- 

 bers of European Juras, yet, in my opinion, he has failed to esta- 

 blish 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." 



It is evident that every geologist who is not able to procure access 

 to my original papers J will believe that my survey of the Spiti 

 valley and the determination of the fossils were only a guesswork, 

 and that what European geologists call Lias, Dogger, and Malm 

 are in the Himalaya only represented by one equivalent of Jurassic 

 rocks, in ivhich fossils of the different formations are confusedly 

 associated. 



Though I cannot doubt for a moment that anybody in possession of 

 my papers would be able to form for himself an opinion as to the correct- 

 ness or incorrectness of Mr. Tate's statement, still a short account of 

 the Jurassic deposits as developed in the Spiti valley may be welcome 



* [With the exception of this species, the fossils collected by Capt. Baker differ 

 from those South- American Tertiary forms described either by D'Orbigny or by 

 Sowerby (in Darwin's ' South America '), although some of them, e. g. a Struthio- 

 laria, a Turritella, and a Natica, appear to be closely allied to those collected by 

 Darwin. — En.] 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 139. 



X "Sections across the North-west Himalayas from the Sutlej to the Indus, 

 &c.," and " Summary of Geological Observations, &c.," Mem. Geol. Siu'vey of 

 India, 1865-66, vol. v. pt. 1. p. 1, and pt. 3. p. 337. 



