GONDITE— GREAT LIMESTONE 51 



in rivers. The beds range in age from about Upper Carbon- 

 ferous to Jurassic, and are the main source of coal in India, being 

 similar in origin and age to the Karroo system of South Africa. 

 The base of the system (Talchir stage) was regarded from indirect 

 evidence as Permian (W. T. and H. F. Blanford and W. Theobald, 

 Mem., Geol. Surv., Ind., I, 82, 1859). From a consideration of 

 the fossil flora it was moved up to the Trias (0. Feistmantel, 

 Bee., Geol. Surv., Ind., IX, 79, 1876), but more recent work shows 

 the characteristic fossil plants of the Lower Gondwana to be not 

 younger than Upper Carboniferous (H. H- Hayden, Rec, Geol. 

 Surv., Ind., XXXVI, 38, 1907). 



Qoolcheroo.— See Gulcheru quartzites. 



Grandite. — Mineral name proposed by L. L. Fermor {Mem., Geol. 

 Surv., Ind., XXXVII, 165, 181, 1909) for a garnet intermediate 

 in composition between grossularite (3CaO.Al 2 3 .3Si0 2 ), but with 

 sometimes an appreciable quantity also of MnO (manganese-grand- 

 ite). Found in the Ganjam district, Madras Presidency, in 

 rocks similar to the kodurite series. 



Great limestone Zone.— Name used by C. S. Middlemiss (Director's 

 General Report, 1899-1900, 130) for a great spread of limestones 

 forming the main part of the Southern Shan States plateau. This 

 zone was divided into the following tentative groupings of no 

 precise strati»raphical value. The names are given from the 

 localities where the exposures are best seen. 



Pyinnyaung limestone : a massive, dark and light-grey limestone 

 without definite bedding and of high clip, typically exposed near 

 Pyinnyaung in the Karenni country. It is separated from other 

 limestones by purple sandstones, and is compared to the massive 

 limestones and dolomites of the Himalayas like the Krol. 



ThamaJcan limestone : a limestone sometimes massive, but also 

 thin-tedded and marly in places and occasionally sandy. It 

 lithologically resembles the grey limestones of Hazara. ; 



Helto limestone : a blue-grey, fairly well bedded and sometimes 

 concretionary limestone, with ferruginous layers, but without re- 

 cognisable fossils and of unknown age. 



Taunggyi-Eofong-Etam Sang limestone : a varied lot of limestones 

 and associated thin-bedded shales with a few sandy limestones, 

 exposed between Taurjggyi, Hopong and Htam Sang villages. 

 Many of the limestones have been completely brecciated and 



Eg 



