1855.] On the age of the Coal strata in Central India. 349 



Now, if the fern-bearing eoal shales and laminated sandstones of 

 this province be the same as the fish-producing bituminous shales 

 of Kota, then the light, which the last mentioned beds afford re- 

 garding their own age, may be cast back on the other two. It is 

 satisfactory to find, that the evidence supplied by the Kota fossils 

 is that of animal remains. The fishes that rewarded the researches 

 of Drs. "Walker and Bell have been pronounced by Sir P. Egerton 

 to be true Oolitic forms, and probably of the age of the Lias ; and 

 therefore our vegetable organisms can be no older. To make this 

 part of the evidence complete, and with the view of introducing 

 some remarks on the testimony of our fossil plants, I may here 

 mention, that between Nagpur and Chanda, at both of which places 

 the upper sandstone has the usual iron bands, and the bare lamin- 

 ated beds the common vegetable remains, there is a district with 

 Mangali as the centre (sixty miles S. of Nagpur) where the supe- 

 rior sandstone is less ferruginous, and the inferior or laminated beds 

 are coloured by iron of a deep brick red. In the latter strata, 

 where, from the analogy of the country both South and North of 

 them, we should expect an abundance of ferns and stems, the re- 

 mains of reptiles, fishes and entomostraca predominate, while the 

 few vegetables that are found, are generally very different from 

 those occurring in other parts of this territory. And yet from the 

 position of this sandstone I have very little doubt that it is the 

 same as that of the more ordinary appearance. The teachings of 

 its Fauna are interesting. The skull of a Labyrinthodont, named 

 by Owen Brachyops laticeps, might suggest for it a Triassic or even 

 Carboniferous age, but the plentifulness of scales of lepidotoid 

 fishes forbids us to assign a more ancient epoch than the Jurassic ; 

 and the conclusion is unavoidable, not that our laminated sandstone 

 is older than the age we have attributed to it, but that the Laby- 

 rinthodont family has come down to a more recent period than is 

 generally believed. 



But now it is time to inquire what we are to learn from our 

 fossil plants, regarding the age of the carbonaceous shales and lami- 

 nated sandstone of this province. 



The testimony of vegetable remains I do not reckon of trifling 

 value. When they belong to a large genus like PecopterU, which 



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