206 HOLLAND : CHARNOCKITE SERIES. 



amongst the old gneisses is due, however, not to sedimentary 

 superposition, but to intrusion and transgression after the fashion of 

 igneous rocks. 



After Ceylon, the nearest foreign relatives of our charnockite 

 series are the few known exposures of pyroxene-granulites on the 

 mainland of Africa and Madagascar. It will be interesting to follow 

 up the comparison of South Indian with African and Malagasy rocks 

 in view of the probable existence of the pre-tertiary Indo-African 

 continent. This stretch of dry land probably had a great crystalline 

 protaxis of which fragments are now preserved in South Africa, 

 Madagascar, Ceylon, Peninsular India and perhaps Assam. 



So far as we know from the specimens collected by the 



Rev. R. Baron, the rocks from Madagascar de- 



Py lTaTa"|Iscar! teS *" bribed by Hatch » as « pyroxene-granulites " 



very closely resemble our Indian charnockite 



series, and there also they are associated with pyroxenites and 



quartz-magnetite and quartz-actinolite schists 2 like those of South 



India. There is no doubt from Mr. Baron's notes that a precise 



comparison of Madagascar with Peninsular India would bring out 



some very interesting similarities in many other rocks as well as in 



these pyroxene-granulites. 



(2) Comparison with ancient Pyroxenic eruptives* 

 In none of the numerous extra-Indian occurrences of pyroxene 

 granulites has an undisputed origin been established by direct evi- 

 dence. But in a few old crystalline areas pyroxenic formations occur 

 which, though formerly regarded as ordinary members of the crystal- 

 line schists, are now generally considered to be eruptive, although 

 they are too old to be given a place in the stratigraphical succession. 

 The noritesand hyperites of Sc-andinavia, the anorthosites of Canada, 

 and the Cortlandt series of the United States are well known 

 examples of such rocks. 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. XLV (1889), p. 344. 



2 ?ee R. Baron, "Geological notes of a journey in Madagascar. " Quart. Journ. Geol, 

 Soc, Vol. LI (1895), pp. 59 and 60. 



