280 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



investigation has not been allowed to stand still, and some advance 

 has been made in Baluchistan, the Punjab, and Burma, by Mr. 

 Oldham, Mr. Middlemiss, and Dr. Noetling. A discovery of fossils 

 in a series of limestones on the outskirts of the Shan plateau, east 

 of Mandalay, which he had already noticed as bearing a very strong 

 resemblance to certain limestones of the lower Silurian system of 

 Sweden and Western Russia is pronounced by Dr. King to be of the 

 grearest geological interest and importance as indicating that a 

 branch or arm of the Arctic portion of the ocean by which the lower 

 Silurian beds were deposited, reached at least to 22° N. lat. of the 

 Indo-Chinese peninsula ; it is even likely that it extended still 

 further to the south, as the limestone beds of the Shan hills are 

 again met in Tenasserim. 



Mr. G-riesbach was engaged until October 1890 on his Memoir on 

 the Geology of the Central Himalayas, which will be issued very 

 shortly ; and has since been attached in the capacity of geologist to 

 the Miranzai Expedition. 



During the same year (1890) the usual volume of the " Records," 

 consisting of 23 papers, has been issued ; of these, 12 bear on 

 industrial or economic subjects. Vol>XXIII. also contains the second 

 part (Madras and the North-West Provinces) of the Provisional Index 

 of the local distribution of important minerals, miscellaneous 

 minerals, gem stones, and quarry stones in the Indian Empire, which 

 has been much sought after. 



One memoir was published, forming Part 2 of Volume XXIV. 

 In this, Mr. Middlemiss has contributed much new research to the 

 physical geology of the Sub-Himalaya of Garhwal and Kumaun. 

 The remarkable speculation arising out of a sudden develop- 

 ment of interest in the auriferous conditions of the Chota Nagpur 

 Province has created a great demand for those publications of 

 the survey which contain even a slight reference to the geology 

 of that region, and as a consequence, Vol. XVIIL, Part 2, of the 

 Memoirs, and several parts of the volumes of the records are now 

 out of print. 



A complete and detailed index to all the papers published in the 

 first 20 volumes of the Records has been 'prepared during the past 

 year, and issued quite recently. This publication will prove of the 

 greatest use to those desiring to consult the detailed papers on 

 Indian geological topics. A " Bibliography of Indian Geology," or 

 list of books published up to the end of 1887, has also been 

 published by Mr. R, D. Oldham. 



