258 ME. ^Y. T. BLAN"FOED ON THE OCCUREElSrCE OF 



were higher in the series than the boulder-beds ; bnt naturally my 

 hurried observations, made in marching rapidly through a country 

 where only here and there a patch of rock emerges from beneath 

 the blown sand and alluvium, were neither satisfactory nor conclu- 

 sive. I am not surprised to hear that Mr. Oldham has now ascer- 

 tained that the boulder-bed is above the Yindhyans, that it is 

 extensively developed, that it forms the basement-bed of these 

 western representatives of the Gondwanas, and, in short, that it is 

 shown by its character and position to be a representative of the 

 Talchir beds. 



A glance at the map of India will show that the locality in North 

 Rajputana is nearly equidistant from Hoshungabad in the Kerbndda 

 valley and the Salt Eange of the Punjab, and not far to the west- 

 ward of a straight line between the two. 



Still another observation remains to be added. Mr. Griesbach, 

 who is attached as geologist to the mission engaged in laying down 

 the Eussian and Afghan boundary, found*, more than a year ago, 

 in the neighbourhood of Herat, greenish sandstones and shales with 

 boulders at the base of a great plant-bearing system containing, be 

 says, Vertebraria, a typical Damuda (lower Gondwana) plant. . The 

 boulder-bed he recognized at once as Talchir, and he insists on its 

 resemblance to the Ecca beds of South Africa, a similarity due 

 partly to the association of basaltic rock in both cases. 



In a subsequent paper he gives further details, and states t that 

 the boulder-bed rests conformably on marine Carboniferous beds. 

 I cannot find any clear evidence as to the position of these beds in 

 the Carboniferous ; amongst the fossils are said to be Productus 

 semireticiilatus, Atliyris Royssii, Fenestellce, &c., but both the Brachio- 

 poda have a wide range, and of course the determinations are 

 made without means of accurate comparison ; indeed Mr. Griesbach 

 especially states that his notes are merely rough descriptions. Dr. 

 Waagen speaks of the marine beds as Lower Carboniferous ; and 

 very probably they are of that age, like the limestones further west 

 in the Elburz. If this be the case, the geological position of the 

 boulder-bed may probably be identical with that in the western 

 Salt Eange. Eut I think it will be weU. to await further details 

 before coming to any decided conclusion. 



The importance of the observation lies chiefly in the fact that if 

 the beds at Herat are really equivalents of the Indian Gondwanas, 

 a great step has been made towards the connexion of the Indian 

 beds, the position of which has so long been problematical, with the 

 typical geological sequence in Europe. As Mr. Griesbach points 

 out, the Herat plant-bearing beds probably represent those of 

 Russian Turkestan and those of the Elburz and Armenia. 



Although it was impossible to overlook the remarkable evidence 

 of ice-action previously recorded from South Africa, India, and 

 Australia, I have feared hitherto to attach too much weight to it 



* Eec. a. S. I. 1885, p. 62. t Ibid. 1886, p. 54. 



