1884] Geology cnd Palaeontology. 1125 
Gondwana system of Central India, a great sequence of fresh- 
water beds probably of fluviatile origin, over 20,000 fect thick, is 
of unusual interest on account of the extraordinary conflict of 
paleontological evidence it presents. 
Its subdivisions are numerous, and vary in almost every place 
of occurrence. One (the Talchir beds) contains rounded bould- 
ers chiefly of metamorphic rocks up to six feet across, embedded 
in fine silt, others are characterized by an intermingling of floras 
and faunas that give rise to a mass ot contradictions ; beds with 
a Triassic fauna overlying others with Rhætic or Jurassic floras. 
The Australian coal-measures and their associated beds present 
over, Barrande’s conclusion is disputed by other observers. 
In Most of the cases he had named the conflict is between the 
evidence of marine and terrestrial organisms. Manifestly one or 
the other of these leads to erroneous conclusions, and in making 
in the Gondwanas of India has been detected amongst poner 
formations of which the sequence was unquestioned. Further, ! 
fresh-water animals and plants at the present day, we shall find a 
very striking difference; and it is possible that this difference 
may afford a clew to the conditions that prevailed in past times. 
ees 
lly admitted. 
No circumstance has contributed more widely to the belief than 
the supposed universal diffusion of the carboniferous flora. s 
Evidence that the plants which prevailed in the a A 
Europe were replaced by totally different forms in Australia, 
