ORDOVICIAN SYSTEM. 



that has been found to exist between the geology of eastern Upper 

 Burma and that of India proper. This discrepancy was at once 

 noticed by Dr. Noetling, 1 and further discoveries have shown that 

 it is much wider than even he supposed. He says : — 



" The presence of such a characteristic form as an Echinosphcerites even permits 

 the identification of the exact horizon of the red limestone (i.e., the Pyintha limestone). 

 It is an equivalent of the Echinosphcerites limestone of the Baltic provinces. It not 

 only contains the same fossils but also strongly resembles the latter lithologically. 

 How can we account for such a strange phenomenon as this ? We find here a fauna 

 under 22° northern latitude which is precisely the same as that found in the 

 Baltic provinces (59° to 66° N. Lat.), whilst the Silurian fauna of the Himalayas 

 approaches much closer to the Silurians of Central Europe. The fauna of the lower 

 Silurians of the Himalayas is as different from that of the Shan hills as is the Silu- 

 rian fauna of Bohemia from that of England. It must therefore be assumed that 

 a branch of the Arctic province 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 with in Tenasserim." 



It is a curious point that the fossil on which these remarks were 

 based, described by Dr. Noetling in the paper 

 deans 1111 ' 61106 ° f Cystl ~ quoted above as a gigantic species of Echino- 

 sphcerites, and named E. Kingi, has turned out, 

 on further examination, not to belong to that genus at all but to 

 be a Camarocrinus allied to the Bohemian genus Lobolithus, occur- 

 ring in the lower Helderberg beds of America. Subsequent investi- 

 gation has shown, however, that the beds beneath the red limestone, 

 in which this fossil was found, are characterised by the presence 

 throughout of well preserved specimens and enormous numbers of 

 detached plates of true cystideans, all of which, " with the exception 

 of Aristocystis, are especially characteristic of the lower Ordovician 

 beds of Northern Europe and particularly of the Kussian Baltic Pro- 

 vinces." 2 Thus Dr. Noetling's observation, though depending on 

 imperfect knowledge, has been justified by the results of further 

 research. 



The formations comprising the Ordovician system in the Shan 

 States have received the following names, in 



List of formations. . ,. . 



descending order : — 

 (Nyaungbaw Limestone.) 

 Hwe Mawng Purple Shales. 



1 Field Notes from the Shan Hills ; Records, Oeol. Surv. Ind., Vol. XXIII, Pt. 2, 

 p. 79: also Ann. Report for 1890, Ibid, Vol. XXIV, Pt. 1, p. 12. 



2 F. R. Cowper Reed, Lower Palaeozoic Fossils of the N. Shan States; Pal. Ind., 

 New Str., VoL II, Mom. No. 3, p. 85, 



