356 Oii the róeles of the Damíída group. [No. 4, 



stance that most of the best seams oceur in a group of rocks unre- 

 presented in other fields. It is not known to which group the beds 

 of Palámo Rámghar or* Central India belong. 



Above the Damáda beds, and slightly unconformable upon them, 

 oceurs a series of coarse false bedded sandstones, with intercalations 

 of red and grey clays, passing into shale in places. These beds are 

 mainly developed in the Southern portion of the Hániganj field, where 

 they form the mass of the fine hill of Panchit (Pachete), whence the 

 ñame of Panchit series is suggested for them. The upper part of Pan- 

 chit Behárináth and G-aranji hills are composed of a coarse conglo- 

 mérate, differing in mineral character from the lower portion of the 

 formation. 



This lower portion is of considerable interest, for, besides plants, 

 the first distinct animal remains yet discovered in Bengal have been 

 procured from them. These consist of various biconcave vertebrae 

 and other bones, jaws and teeth, apparently rep tillan, and of a small 

 crustacean allied to iEstheria. The plants include, besides numerous 

 peculiar forms, the Schizonema ? so characteristic of the Rániganj 

 series. 



The iEstherias appear identical with those found by Mr. Hislop 

 in the Mangáli shales of Nagpúr. From these shales was also pro- 

 cured a reptile, Brachiops laticeps of Owen, belonging to the same 

 group as the Labyrinthodon. It seems probable that the Mangáli 

 shales are the representatives of the Panchits of Bengal. The Upper 

 Damúdas of Jabbalpúr may also be of the same age. 



In the Bájmahál hills the Lower Damúdas are unconformably over- 

 laid by a series of grits, conglomerates, and white clays. Above 

 these, also unconformably, oceur enormous flows of basaltic trap, 

 with interstratifications of white and black shales, abounding in plants 

 of the genera Zamites, Pterophyllum, Pecopteris, Tceniopteris, &c. 



* Beds containing plants of Damúda age oceur also at the base of the Hima- 

 layas of Sikkim, a circumstance first noted by Dr. Hooker, in his " Himalayan 

 Journals," Vol. I. p. 403, and confirmed by myself in 1856. Nothing however 

 could be made out of the extent of the beds, which are distinct from those con- 

 taining coal on the Tista river. The only evidence of the existence of Damúdas 

 were speciraens of glossopteris and vertebraria found in loóse blochs in a stream 

 below Pankábári. 



