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PROP. P. M. DUNCAN ON THE ECHINOIDEA OP THE 



10. On the Echinoidea of the Cretaceous Strata of the Lower 

 NarbadX Region. By Prof. P. Martin Duncan. E.R.S., E.G.S. 

 (Read January 12, 1887.) 



Owing to the kindness of H. B. Medlicott, Esq., E.R.S., Director 

 of the Geological Survey of India, I have lately received a consider- 

 able number of specimens of Echinoidea, which have been obtained 

 from recorded localities, from the Cretaceous formation, in the 

 Lower Narbada valley. 



A small collection of Echinoidea, Mollusca, and Brachiopoda, and 

 a coral are in the Museum of this Society, and they came from the 

 neighbourhood of Bag on the Narbada, in the same district whence 

 the forms lately received were found. This small collection was 

 described by me in a communication to this Society in 1865, 

 another collection from S.E. Arabia being associated with it, and an 

 Upper Greensand horizon was given to the strata containing the 

 species (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 349). The persistence 

 of many well-known European species into the far east was noticed. 

 In 1866 *, Messrs. Blanford and Wynne surveyed the Bag district, 

 and decided that the succession of the Cretaceous rocks was, from 

 below upwards, as follows : — Sandstone and conglomerate, 20 feet ; 

 nodular limestone, nearly unfossiliferous, 20 feet ; argillaceous lime- 

 stone, fossiliferous, 10 feet ; and coralline limestone (Bryozoan) 10 

 to 20 feet. The relation of these conformable beds to the overlying 

 Lameta beds and the Deccan and Malwa Trap was noticed. 



The surveyors accepted my decision regarding the age of the beds 

 which had yielded the fossils, namely the argillaceous beds near 

 Deola and Chirakhan. In 1868 f a similar horizon was stated to 

 be present in the Sinai area ; it was already known in Algeria ; and 

 later on, Eraas and Cotteau discovered it in the Lebanon. 



The little collection from Bag became very interesting when 

 Stoliczka's great work on the Echinodermata of the Cretaceous rocks 

 of S. India was published ; for none of the more northern forms were 

 discovered by him. Yet the presence of the same geological horizon 

 in S. India was placed beyond a doubt. (Pal. Ind. 1873, Cret. 

 Eauna, vol. iv. 3, ser. 8, 3.) 



In 1880 the trigonometrical survey having been completed, and a 

 first-class map of the Lower Narbada valley having been published, 

 the Geological Survey of the district was seriously entered upon, 

 the work of Blanford and Wynne being the basis. Mr. Bose was 

 ordered to pay especial attention to the fossiliferous strata and 

 the igneous rocks. The results of this survey were published 

 in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxi. pt. i., 



* Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vi., ; see also Blanford, Geol. Bombay, Records 

 Geol. Survey India, vol. v. pt. 3, 1872, p. 82. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 38, and vol. xxv. p. 44 (1869). 



