GLACIAL CONDITIOIy^S IN THE PALEOZOIC ERA, ETC. 251 



west. At both places the dip is moderate and steady, to east-south- 

 east at Stony Creek, to west-north-west at Greta ; at both places the 

 section is practically continuous, and the marine beds may be traced 

 dipping under the coal-seams, and a short way above them again 

 reappearing. The reappearance of the seam on the opposite side of 

 the anticlinal and the absence of any duplication of the seam are 

 conclusive against any theory that the appearances are due to 

 inversion or strike-faults ; while, if further proof were necessary, it 

 would be found in the fact that both at Stony Creek and Greta 

 shafts have been sunk through the marine beds into the Coal, and at 

 the former place through it into more marine beds, thus clearly 

 showing that the Coal-measures are interbedded with the marine 

 beds." 



It is unnecessary to enter into the question of the relationship 

 between the fossil floras of India, Australia, and South Africa. Full 

 details will be found in the papers already quoted. A brief history 

 of the glacial evidence may, however, be useful. 



The boulder-beds of Talchir were first distinguished in Orissa by 

 my brother and myself in 1856. The suggestion was then made 

 that these beds afforded evidence of ice-action*, because boulders of 

 large size (several have been measured exceeding 6 feet in diameter) 

 occur very often in fine silt, and water in sufficiently rapid action to 

 move the boulders would have swept away the silt instead of deposit- 

 ing it. The boulders in the Talchirs are almost always rounded, 

 probably by torrents, and as the beds are entirely destitute of marine 

 remains, there is every probability that the transporting agent was 

 river-ice. 



Eor many years the theory remained without confirmation, and 

 the boulder-bed, everywhere occupying the same position as the base 

 of what had, in course of time, come to be generally known by Mr. 

 H. B. Medlicott's name of the Gondwana system, was traced through- 

 out a wide area in Bengal and the Central Provinces. At last, in 

 1872, Mr. F. Fedden f had the good fortune, west of Chanda, to 

 come upon polished and striated surfaces, both on the boulders 

 themselves and on the underlying rock. The late Dr. Oldham, who 

 was in the neighbourhood, immediately on hearing of the discovery, 

 visited the spot and extracted a well-striated boulder J. 



At the base of the Karoo beds in South Africa a boulder-con- 

 glomerate has also been found, and its glacial origin pointed out by 

 Dr. Sutherland § and others. From the description this formation 

 is wonderfully similar to the Talchir bed, but the boulders are 

 not rounded. Dr. Sutherland suggested that this Ecca bed might 

 have been contemporaneous with the Permian breccias of England, 

 described by Sir A. Ramsay ||. My brother, Mr. H. F. Blauford ^, in 



* Mem. G. S. I. vol. i. p. 49. 

 t Kec. G. S. I. 1875, p. 16. 



J Mem. G. S. I. vol. ix. p. 324. This boulder lias just been sent to the Indian 

 and Colonial Exhibition to be opened in May at South Kensington. 

 § Q. J. G. S. vol. xxvi. p. 514. 

 II Q. J. G. S. vol. xi. p. 185. 

 H Q. J. G. S. vol. xxxi. pp. 529, 530. 



