98 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2, 



over the great bars of volcanic debris a calcareous mud was deposited, 

 teeming with the remains of animals, with the glimmering shells of 

 the Producti, with large flat Orthidce, and innumerable Bryozoa and 

 numerous Encrinites which grew luxuriantly on the half chalky, half 

 clayey, foetid bottom of well protected island seas, gulfs and channels. 

 And so it went on for years and years, until the sea became too shallow 

 for Producli and Orthidce to live in, and too easily disturbed to its 

 very bottom to suit the delicate Bryozoa. These animals retired to 

 greater depths on either side of the great bar, and in their stead 

 appeared small Gucullce, globular Terehratulce, with here and there, 

 on sandy banks, colonies of large Cardiniae or Anthracosice, gibbose 

 and smooth Aviculo-pectens, or radiated ones of great size. In calm 

 waters, flat and large species of Goniatites basked in the sun in company 

 with small Orthoceralidce and large species of Bellerophon. Earthquakes 

 were, however, frequent and terrible, raising and depressing large 

 tracts of sea-bottom, folding and undulating the newly formed beds of 

 limestone, so that most of the shells are found broken, and many of 

 them are deformed to a wonderful extent. 



Many changes occurred in the sea : clay and sand had been brought 

 down in large quantities from the volcanic islands, and many of the 

 creeks and inland seas were turned into swamps. Long shelving 

 coast-lines extended from island to island, and many groups of the 

 great archipelago were probably united by a low land into larger 

 insular countries. The genera Cucullce-a, Cardinia and Aviculo-pecten, 

 and small Brachicpoda disappeared ; and in their stead myriads of 

 Gasteropoda, especially the Pyramidellidcs, living with numerous corals, 

 made their appearance. As the islands joined more and more into larger 

 dry lands, and approached nearer to a long strip of land supporting 

 numerous peaks of extinct volcanoes, the rain-fall increased more 

 and more, sand, mud and gravel accumulated in thicker beds at the 

 mouth of the mountain torrents which now became rivers, and on the 

 swampy shores forests of calamites and other trees grew up, whilst, 

 out at sea, the mollusks and other animals continued to thrive at various 

 depths, according to their kind. What has now become of these forests 

 of calamites ? Have they been buried in sands by oscillations of the 

 coast and converted into coal ? If they have, has the coal been denuded 

 at a subsequent period ? or has some portion of it escaped removal and 



