22 Murchison s Silurian System. 



A description of the salt formations at the head of the 

 Indus, and their relative position to the coal measures re- 

 cently found there by Mr. Jameson, will be the means of 

 casting much important light on this subject in regard to 

 India, and we have fortunately in the gentleman alluded to 

 a geologist near the spot, fully alive to the importance of this 

 and other questions of a similar nature. Another equally 

 important question is the situation of the great repositories 

 of salt in the vicinity of Ajmeer, and other situations in 

 Central India, where salt lakes abound. Lieut. Fraser, of the 

 Engineers, we recollect, sent us a fragment of rock-salt, 

 which was found imbedded in a basaltic rock, when sinking 

 a well at Mhow, about three feet from the surface. We have 

 not heard that this curious fact has led to any further dis- 

 covery or research in the neighbourhood alluded to. 



The next beds of the New Red System described by 

 Mr. Murchison, are the sandstone and quartzose conglo- 

 merates.* It is difficult to characterise these beds, otherwise 

 than by the absence of saline impregnations, and occasional 

 appearance of fragments of the older rocks, as in the last; 

 fossils are said by Mr. Murchison to be rarely found in it 

 in England, but in Ireland a profusion of small fishf were 

 found in an equivalent rock at Rhone hill, near Dungannon. 

 On the continent it is still more distinguished by numerous 

 fossil plants, as Equisetacece, Felices, Cotiiferee Liliacece, 

 the whole of which are said to have a certain community 

 of character peculiar to the age, and are very distinct from 

 the plants of the overlying and underlying systems. 



The third, and only other member of the New Red System 

 hitherto detected in Great Britain, is the calcareous con- 

 glomerate, or lower new red sandstone, which in the central 

 counties is equivalent to the magnesian limestone of the 

 north-east, and the dolomitic conglomerate of the south-west 

 of England. " They do not, however, contain solid beds of 



* Called Bunter sandstein by the Germans, and Gres bigarre by the French. 

 f Pdlceniscus catopterus. 



