146 C. Schuchert — Russian Carboniferous and Permian. 



lower horizons. Should the detailed examination show that 

 the fossils of the various horizons of the Productus limestone 

 are also found associated in the thin fossiliferous zone of the 

 Bellerophon limestone of Krain, the conclusion will be una- 

 voidable that the various zones of the Productus limestone 

 are of Upper Permian age." 



In the second paper cited above, treating of the fauna of the 

 Productus shales, Diener states the following : — 



"The only decisive evidence for a permian age of the Pro- 

 ductus shales is however based on their stratigraphical rela- 

 tions to the triassic beds of the mesozoic belt of the Central 

 Himalayas, not on their fossil remains. One of the chief 

 results of Griesbach's geological survey of the Bhot Mahals of 

 Kumaon and Gurhwal is the proof of an unconformity, exist- 

 ing at the base of the Productus shales, which locally overlap 

 successive strata of carboniferous age. With this unconform- 

 ity another uninterrupted sequence begins, with conformable 

 bedding throughout, which ranges from the Productus shales 

 to the topmost beds of the triassic system. So intimate is the 

 stratigraphical connection between the Productus shales and 

 the following Otoceras beds of lowest triassic age, that a sharp 

 boundary cannot be drawn between them " (pp. 53-54). 



In the third publication above cited, Diener reviews his for- 

 mer work on the fossils of Chitichun No. 1, owing to larger 

 and more significant collections subsequently made by Walker. 

 These collections have not altered Diener's correlations with 

 the Salt Range, but they have, when interpreted in the light of 

 Noetling's publications, caused him to depart strongly from 

 the nearly unanimous views of European stratigraphers and to 

 agree in the main with the intercontinental correlation of 

 Noetling. Great weight should be attached to the correlation 

 of these two paleontologists, for they have collected the fossils 

 of the Permian in India and studied them in the laboratory. 

 Diener's conclusions are as follows : — 



" So far there is no reason for any change in my correlation 

 of the Chitichun fauna with Indian faunae of permian age, as 

 proposed by myself in 1897. I am, however, bound to confess 

 that the affinities of the Chitichun fauna to those of Europe 

 have not been correctly interpreted, and that my examination 

 of Walker's materials is apt to lead in this respect to results 

 remarkably different to those deduced in my first memoir. 



" In that memoir [here numbered 1] the conclusions at 

 which I arrived with regard to the stratigraphical position of 

 the Chitichun fauna were summed up as follows : — 



" ' The Chitichun limestone is approximately homotaxial 

 with the upper division of the middle • Productus limestone 

 (Yirgal and Kalabagh beds) in the Salt Pange. It probably 

 corresponds in age to the permo-carboniferous horizon (Artin- 



