ECHINOIDEA. 29 



It is certainly a most startling result that two species hitherto only known 

 from the cretaceous deposits in the Pyrenees suddenly appear at a distance of 

 thousands of miles in the cretaceous formation of Baluchistdn. I expect many will 

 receive this with the gravest douhts, and I may say that I hesitated for a long time 

 before making such a surprising statement, but I can safely state that the force of 

 the evidence was quite strong enough to convince me. I have particularly dwelt at 

 length on the distinguishing features of the different species of ffemipneustes in 

 order to enable every one to judge for himself whether my determination of the Balu- 

 chistan forms as Remipnemtes pyrenaiGus and leymeriei is correct or not. I pointed 

 out that the chief difference of the various species of Eemipneustes lies in the shape 

 of the test, and as in this respect the forms from Baluchistdn agree absolutely with 

 those from the Pyrenees, I think that their identity is established beyond doubt. 



Although a remarkable fact, there is no reason why European forms should 

 not also occur in the cretaceous system of Baluchistdn. The well known Janira qua- 

 dricostata of Central Europe is very common in the same beds in which the 

 Jlemipneustes species have been found. The strange thing is that Pyrenean forms 

 which do not occur in Algiers, reappear in Baluchistan. How this remarkable 

 problem will eventually be solved is more than I can say at present. 



Dr. Stoliczka^ has described as Cardiaster orientalis an urchin which, in my 

 opinion, is probably a Hemipneustes. I have examined Dr. Stoliczka's original, and 

 was much surprised to find that the specimen fig. 2 to which the name Cardiaster 

 orientalis was given, has not only lost its original shape entirely by deformation, but 

 that little more than three quarters of the upper surface of the test is preserved at all. 

 The whole of the lower surface, the ambitus, and a large part of the posterior side of 

 the test are worn away. There remains, therefore, nothing but a part of the upper 

 surface, v^ich exhibits the ambulacra, of which the postero-lateral ones are only 

 partly preserved. Now, if one may be allowed to judge from such an ill preserved 

 specimen, I think the poriferous zones exhibit those features which are character- 

 istic of Hemipneustes ; the deep anteal sulcus would be quite in accordance with this 

 view ; the geological position also of this species —the Ariyaliir stage, the top beds 

 of the cretaceous system of Southern India — would agree with this view. I refrain, 

 however, from expressing a definite opinion, until some better preserved material 

 comes to hand ; but if I am right, then the genus Hemipneustes would extend as far 

 as Southern India.^ 



Hemipneustes pyeenaicus, Hubert. PI. VI. fig. 2.2b, 3-3A. 4-4a. PL VII. fig. 1-la. 



1875. Semipneustes pyrenaicut, Hubert, Ball, de la Soc. Gdol, de France, ser. iii. III, page 593, pi. XIX. 



Dimensions offoiw specimens. , 



L 



^ Palaeontologia Indica : Cretac. Fauna of South India, Vol. IV, Part 3, page 23. 



« I may mention here that Stoliczka's fig. 1 of Cardiaster orientalis is entirely different bom fig. 2, and that I 

 fail to see how both specimens can be considered as one and the same species. 



