370 the geological hisxobt [June 191 3, 



Discussion. 



Mr. B. D. Oldham congratulated the Author on the interesting 

 and connected account that he had produced of a country re- 

 garding which only scattered information had been accessible, and 

 in which geological work was very difficult. Personally, he had 

 been more especially interested in the portion dealing with what 

 the Author had called the ' Malayan Gondwana rocks ' ; these evi- 

 dently comprised rocks of the same age as those that are included 

 in the Gondwana System of India, but differed in type from the 

 rocks to which that name was generally restricted. The discovery 

 of beds of glacial origin which could be reasonably ascribed to 

 the same age as the Talchir boulder-beds of India was especially 

 interesting. The magnificent series of photographs exhibited 

 showed most clearly that these beds present most, if not all, of 

 the characters on which the belief in the existence of glaciers de- 

 scending to low levels is based in India, South Africa, and Australia; 

 but the acceptance of a glacial origin for these rocks, taken in 

 conjunction with the reported occurrence of glacial beds of similar 

 age in South America, and with the complete absence of any 

 comparable deposits in Europe, Northern Asia, or North America, 

 led to the extraordinary conclusion that in Permian times the 

 •equatorial regions were characterized by a colder climate than 

 the polar regions. 



Mr. 11. Bullen Newton stated that he had been privileged to 

 aid the Author in the palaeontological section of his work, as many 

 interesting fossils had been sent to the British Museum for deter- 

 mination . The oldest forms examined were some cephalopod-remains 

 yielded by the limestones of Mill Gully and Gua Sah, which 

 Mr. Crick had recognized as Solenocheilus, Gyrtoceras, OrtJwceras, 

 etc. The first-named genus is of chief importance, since it belongs 

 exclusively to the Carboniferous Limestone Series, and might be 

 regarded as indicating an horizon about that of the Yisean deposits 

 of Belgium ; the limestone could not, therefore, be considered as of 

 later age, as had been suggested in the paper. 



Permian rocks were represented at Lubok Sukom, and had 

 yielded impressions of the ammonoid genus Xenodiscus and Denta- 

 iium cf. herculea • both forms have been described by Waagen as 

 occurring in similar association in the Upper Productua Limestone 

 ■of India, an horizon approximately equivalent to that of the latest 

 Permian deposits of Europe. 



The marine shells from Singapore found in association with land- 

 plants (Podoza mites), which the speaker had described as of 

 probably about Middle Jurassic age, were of peculiar interest : 

 for the assemblage suggested a possible relationship to Upper 

 Gondwana conditions, more especially as terrestrial and marine 

 organisms in association had been recorded from deposits of Upper 

 Gondwana age in India. 



Mr. T. H. D. La Touche remarked that the Eaub Series of the 

 Author was apparently a southward extension of a portion of the 



