I860.] On the rocJcs of the Damuda group. 353 



two papers by Mr. J. Homfray, one published in the Asiatic Society's 

 Journal for 1842, the other published in 1847, and reports by Dr. 

 McClelland, on the Kaharbali coal field, and on other portions of the 

 tract of country between the Ganges and the Grand Trunk Road. 

 It is impossible to consider any of these papers as contributions to 

 science, all being extremely inaccurate. Indeed in one case injury has 

 been done, the plates attached to Dr. McClelland's report, not being 

 true delineations of the fossils they are intended to represent (a result 

 perhaps of the difficulty of obtaining competent draughtsmen and 

 lithographers in Calcutta) have caused erroneous opinions to be enter- 

 tained in Europe, amongst Paleontologists, concerning the affinities 

 of the plants figured. 



Yeiy little light came from Australia. The plants there associated 

 with the coal were examined by Messrs. Morris and McCoy, and the 

 rocks themselves by Clarke and Strzelecki. Unfortunately the last 

 observers adopted different and irreconcileable opinions, the first 

 named stating that the coal-bearing rocks were interstratified with 

 others containing marine shells of carboniferous age, the other that 

 they rested upon the marine beds. The relations of the plants were 

 generally considered to be oolitic. 



This last opinion was supported by the discovery in India of cyca- 

 daceous plants, as Zamites, Pterophyllum, &c, allied to forms sup- 

 posed, until recently, to be characteristic of Jurassic and Upper Me- 

 sozoic rocks. These Cycads were moreover in places, as in Nagpur 

 and the Rajmahal hills, found in the neighbourhood of Verte- 

 braria, Glossopteris, and other genera, peculiar to the coal-bearing 

 rocks, and it was supposed that all were found in the same beds. 



The examination of the beds of the Rajmahal hills, of Orissa, and 

 of Central India, by the Geological Survey, together with the valuable 

 observations and collections of the Rev. Mr. Hislop at Nagpur, have, 

 for some years past, been gradually throwing light upon the true 

 relations of the various beds. The re-examination of the Raniganj 

 or Damiida field during the past two years has supplied several 

 important links in the chain of evidence, and the following is an 

 abstract of the views of the writer upon the classification which may 

 be adopted. The details of the survey of the Raniganj field will be 

 published as usual as the memoirs of the Geological Survey. 



