1834.] 



Geology of the South of India. 



338 



bed bears all the appearance of a regular stratum — it will serve 

 " as a mark of distinction between the older and more recent volca- 

 *' nic emissions of that extensive field/' Journal, Asiatic Society, 

 October 1833, page 549. 



The apparent absence of fossils in the secondary formations of 

 India, has been remarked by Mr. Conybeare in his report to the Bri- 

 tish Association, and the want of information on the characters of the 

 fossils discovered by Dr. Voysey beneath the trap of the Gav/ilgerK 

 hills in Berar, noticed as a subject of regret. A specimen of the Gawil- 

 gerh fossihferous rock which had belonged to Dr. Voysey's collecti- 

 on having been presented to me, I have had a sketch made of the 

 most perfect shell it contains, of the natural size, and although it is 

 imperfect, a comparison with the figure of the Sagar fossils will 

 show, that it cannot be referred to the fresh water family to which 

 ampullaria belongs.* 



I have no doubt that Dr. Voysey justly considered the Gawil- 

 gerh shells to have been marine, and that like the various species 

 I discovered in the Neermul hills ^ they had been raised from the 

 bottom of the ocean by a series of great volcanic convulsions, which 

 had also raised the granite rocks on which these trap mountains 

 rest. It will be observed that some remains of small spiral shells 

 exist in the Gawilgerh specimen, and appear to be the same as 

 some of those found on the summits of the Neermul hills, which 

 belong to the Shesha range running 'parallel to the former for 

 several hundred miles; and in a fragment of indurated clay 

 brought by Dr. Voysey from a place called Jirpah, fragments of 

 bivalves can be traced, which are themselves too imperfect to be 

 of use, but their forms can be determined by comparing them with 

 the more perfect ones in my possession. 



The singular phenomena exhibited by the eruption of the trap 

 through the granite, and the argillaceous limestone which ap- 

 pears to be interstratified with the great sandstone formation; the 

 consequent alterations in the characters of the rocks, which exhibit 

 all the series of changes from simple elevation to the aggregation 

 of the sand and mud which had covered them (and in which 



* Similar fossils found in the trap formation at Chicknee, 62 rm es South of 

 Nagpore, appear to me rather to belong to the genus voluta of tlie L.nnean 

 system than to ampullaria. The shell No. 8, in the sketch is a species ot 

 voluta which occurs on this coast and is copied from ^Vood s Catalogue plate 

 21, No. 184, and the similarity in form to the Sagar shell, is suflicient to sug- 

 gest the necessity of caution in determining the characters of unperfect re- 

 mains on which important inferences depend. The recent shell is inches 

 long. 



