A DESCRIPTION 



OP THE 



FOSSIL EOHINOIDEA 



OF 



WESTERN SIND. 



I. Introductory Bemarks on previous Works relating to the Fossil Echinoidea of Sind. 



The museum of the Geological Society of London contains two collections of fossil 

 Echinoidea from Sind ; and in one of them there are numerous species from Cutch. 



One collection was made and described by Captain Grant. 



The other collection was described by MM. d'Archiac and Jules Haime in their 

 great work entitled ' Description des Animaux Fossiles du groupe Nummulitique de 

 ITnde.' It was beautifully illustrated in that work. The value of the monograph, to 

 labourers in the same field of research, is immense ; but, unfortunately, the localities 

 whence the fossils were derived and their correct geological position were not known to 

 the illustrious authors. Moreover their labours were rendered all the more arduous 

 by the unsatisfactory condition of most of their specimens. "When such rarities as 

 fossils from India came before geologists, some years ago, species and genera were 

 attempted to be distinguished by the study of specimens on which no trouble would 

 have been spent, had they been derived from well-known European strata. The result 

 has been, that many of the species described by MM. d'Archiac and Jules Haime 

 cannot be accepted now ; and, moreover, when their types are compared with their 

 delineations, a considerable amount of imagination must be conceded to have influenced 

 their artist. 



The specimens described by MM. d'Archiac and Jules Haime had been collected, 

 without regard to stratigraphy, by Captain Vicary and Mr. Blagrove and others; and 

 whilst some fossils came from somewhere out of the vast depth of Nummulite- 



B 



