114 LA TOUCHE : GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN SHAN STATES. 



known to occur in south-western Yunnen, and which, are evidently 

 only an extension northwards of the Shan States beds, is that of 

 the Himalaya, where in the central parts, — in Spiti, Bashahr, and 

 Kuniaon, — Ordovician beds have been found, and their fossils de- 

 scribed ; those from the Niti Pass in Kumaon by Salter 1 so far back 

 as 1865, and the whole of the collections more recently by Mr. 

 Cow per Reed, 2 who bad already described the Burmese fauna 

 of the same period. His researches therefore have placed him in 

 a position enabling him to speak with the highest authority on the 

 relations, if any, that exist between the faunas of these two regions. 

 The conclusions arrived at by him are expressed in the following 

 words : — 



" In spite of the great majority of the species " (from Spiti, etc.) " being peculiar 

 to the Himalayas, we are led to observe that they mostly show affinities with 

 American rather than European forms. This is surprising, particularly when 

 the character of the Burmese Ordovician fauna is remembered, since its 

 relations were seen to be clearly European. "3 . . . " The striking American 

 stamp which the whole succession of faunas from the different horizons " (of 

 the Himalaya) " possesses, must indicate that the European elements were almost 

 entirely excluded from the marine basin in which these beds were deposited. "4 



In contrast with the foregoing he says, speaking of certain 

 Relations with North genera in the Burmese collections :— 



Europe. 



" All these are especially characteristic of the lower Ordovician beds of North- 

 ern Europe and particularly of the Russian Baltic Provinces." 



And of others : — 



" These all suggest the Cystidean or Echinosphaerite Limestones of Scandin- 

 avia and Russia which occur near the base of the Ordovician formation." 



" The trilobites, as far as their scanty evidence carries us, have affinities 

 which likewise point to the northern faunas of Europe in the Lower Ordo- 

 vician period." 



Again, of the Brachiopoda, though they " belong to species with 

 a wide horizontal distribution and long vertical range," he 

 remarks : — 



" Clitambonites squamata is a Russian species occurring in the Echinosphserite 

 Limestone. Porambonites intercedens is likewise a north European form . . . 

 'The species Orthis calligramma, 0. flabellulum, 0. testudinaria, O. eleganlula, 

 Raftnesquina imbrex, Phcldmbonites sericea and PI. quinquecoslala range through 



1 Salter and Blanford, PaltBODtology of Niti, in the Northern Himalaya. 



* Ordovician and Silurian Fossils from the Central Himalayas ; Pal. Ind., Ser. X, 

 Vol. VII, Mem. No. 2. 



8 Lor. cit., p 104. 



* Ibid, p. L6£j, 



