GLACIAL CONDITIONS IN THE PALEOZOIC EKA, ETC. 257 



mentions that a rolled specimen of Conularia was sent to him by 

 Dr. "Warth, who, if I understand rightly, now considers the nodules 

 to be transported pebbles. Mr. Wynne is also of opinion that the 

 east Salt-Range boulder-bed is on a different horizon from that to 

 the westward. 



I am in hopes that this difficulty will be cleared up very shortly, 

 and that the locality will be examined by Mr. Oldham or some other 

 officer of the Indian Geological Survey. Meantime, 1 think it will 

 be well to await further information. The evidence as to the 

 boulder- beds in the western Salt Eangeis unaffected by the position 

 of that in the eastern ; and if the latter be of later age there will be 

 evidence of two glacial epochs in Northern India, instead of one ; 

 though it is difficult to avoid a suspicion that all these evidences of 

 a low temperature are on the same general horizon. 



The reason why no one has hitherto been induced to connect 

 these- Salt-Hauge boulder-beds with the Talchirs is, I think, first, 

 because there was no connecting link known, aud the distance at 

 which they occurred from each other, between 700 and 800 miles, 

 rendered any attempt to connect them by means of physical characters 

 rather wild speculation : and, secondly, because whilst the age of the 

 western Salt-Range boulder-beds was generally understood to be 

 infra-Carboniferous, that of the Talchirs was scarcely admitted to be 

 so old as Permian. In fact I was almost alone in contending for 

 its Palaeozoic age. Dr. Peistmantel having classed it as Triassic. 

 The light now thrown upon the age of the Salt-Range boulder-beds, 

 however, is supplemented by another discovery of Mr. Oldham's, 

 who has corrected a faulty observation of my own. 



The most north-western occurrence of the typical Talchir beds 

 with which I am acquainted is in the Nerbudda valley, near 

 Hoshungabad. Far to the westward of the main Gondwana area in 

 Central India some representatives of the Upper Gondwanas are 

 found in Cutch, associated with marine Jurassic strata. The base of 

 the system is not seen, the lowest beds, which are of Bathonian age, 

 being on the verge of a great alluvial tract which conceals all inferior 

 strata. Scattered outcrops, both of the marine and plant-bearing 

 beds, are found emerging here and there from the sands of the In- 

 dian deserts north of Cutch, as far north, at all events, as Jesalmir. 



In a hurried traverse that I made of the desert in 1876 I found 

 near Pokaran, between Jodhpur and Jesalmir, a well- developed 

 boulder-bed, resting in one place on a grooved and striated surface 

 of the Archaean rocks. It was impossible to determine the position 

 of this boulder-bed without further exploration : the only associated 

 formations were the Archaean Malani felsites, porphyries, syenites, 

 &c., clearly inferior, and some red sandstones, which I suspected — 

 correctly, as has since been found — to be Vindhyan (probably very 

 old Palaeozoic). It appeared to me, however, as if the sandstones 



other specimens do not look rolled ; the surface is irregular, as if weatliered, 

 and amongst these weathered specimens is that which Dr. Warth regards as 

 rolled. 



