98 



On the Fossils of the Eastern Portion 



[July 



Saugor, nearly 100 miles to the north-west, reversed shells, stated to be 

 exactl}^ the same as those of Jubalpoor, were discovered by Dr. Spry in 

 a bed of limestone, entirely surrounded by an amphitheatre of trap hills, 

 in which a lower range of compact sandstone is included*. This fossili- 

 ferous limestone is covered by 17 feet of basalt, and rests on a coarse si- 

 liceous grit, under vhich basalt is again met with. In the same neigh- 

 bourhood fine specimens of silicified palms are found. Jubalpoor and 

 Saugor are situated to the north of the Nerbudda, in the great Vindya 

 range ; and in the same district fossil bones of Mammalia occur in lime- 

 stone capped by basalt. The drawings of the shells differ a little from 

 each other|, but the fossils are stated to be the same ; and, as far as Mr. 

 Sowerby could judge, they do not differ from the Physa Prinsepii. The 

 similarity was more obvious in other specimens left in India, and I have 

 no doubt of their being the same. It is, however, desirable that the spe- 

 cimens themselves, in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

 should be compared, that the connexion of the northern and southern 

 portions of the trap formation may be placed beyond a doubt. South of 

 the Nerbudda, fossils are again met with in the mountainous country, 

 north of the sources of the Taptee, at a place called Jirpah, near to 

 which trap hills have broken through the sandstone. Dr. Voysey, in 

 speaking of the heat of the steel furnaces of Neermul, notices the occur- 

 rence of an " indurated clay" containing fossils at this place, but he 

 gives no further information regarding them J. In a small specimen of 

 this rock, Mr. Sowerby recognized the Paludina Deccanensis, and a por- 

 tion of a larger shell, probably the Physa Prinsepii; and the matrix is 

 the same as the fossiliferous " indurated clay" from Gawilghur ; it also 

 much resembles many of the varieties of chert in which the Berar fossils 

 are found. The third range of hills has been described by Dr. Voysey 

 under the name of the Gawilghur Mountains, and it forms a very re- 

 markable feature in the physical geography of Central India. In this 

 lofty basaltic range, Dr. Voysey discovered fossil shells, the situation 

 of which he has accurately described§ ; but as his account of them, 

 has been so far misunderstood, as to induce Mr. Conybeare to state 

 that they occur in " lias-like beds||," and Colonel Sykes in a recent 



* Journal of the Asiatic Societj', pp. 376, 639. 



+ Ibid., p. 583, Plate 20. 



t Ibid., vol. i., p. 247. 



\ Asiatic Rpseaiches, vol. xviii., p. 187. 



11 Report to the British Association, 1832. 



