THE rFKMO-THT \SSIC nOTJNDART. 
45 
This report soon turned out to be incorrect, and the correlation 
of the Himalayan Otoceras beds with the Ceratite marls consequently 
fell to the ground. But the discussion of the true limit between the 
Permian and Triassic systems in the Indian zoo-geographical region was 
nevertheless continued by C. Diener, A. v. Krafft and F. Noetling. 
NoetUng's view set forth in his paper in the Neues Jahrhuch 
was answered by Diener,' who maintained the Triassic age of the 
Otoceras beds and of the corresponding beds in the Salt Range. He 
claimed that no proof had been given of their homotaxis with any 
extra-Indian strata of recognised Permian age, but that their 
bivalve fauna was decidedly in favour of a paralellism with the Seis 
(lower Werfen) beds. 
NoetUng's next paper- is controversial and adds little to the 
settlement of the problem. But in 1901 the question of the true 
stratigraphical position of the Himalayan Otoceras beds was taken up 
by A. v. Krafft. During the summer of 1899 this author had worked 
out the sequence of Permian and Triassic strata in Spiti, together with 
H. Hayden, but the incorrect report of the discovery of Otoceras in 
the Salt Range led him to the conclusion that the Otoceras beds were 
equivalent to the Ceratite marls and to the lower Ceratite limestone 
of the Salt Range.'' In the next season, however, he took an 
entirely different view of the subject. He divided the series between 
the Kuling shales and the Hedenstroemia beds into three palseonto- 
logical zones, the Otoceras bed s. s., the Ophiceras bed and the 
Meekoceras bed. The Meekoceras bed is referred to the Lower Trias, 
the age of the Ophiceras bed is left doubtful, there being no decisive 
proof of its fauna being either Permian or Triassic, but the Otoceras 
bed s. s., is correlated with the Chideru group or Upper Productus 
Limestone, on the strength of an identification of Medlicottia (Episage- 
ceras) Ddailamce Dien. with Medlicottia Wynnei Waag. from the 
zone of Euphemus indicus in the Salt Range.* 
1 C. Diener : Ueber die Grenze des Perm-und Triassyst^ms im ostindischen 
Fauna ngebiet, Centralbl. f. Miner., etc., 1900, p. 1. 
2 F. Noetling : Die Otoceras beds in Indien, Centralblatt. f. Miner., etc., 1900, 
p. 216. 
^ A. V. Krafft : Stratigraphical notes on the mesozoic rocks of Spiti, Gen. Report, 
Geol. Sur. of India, 1899-1900, p. 203. 
A. V. Krafft : Ueber das permische Alter der Otoceras-Stufe des Himalaya, 
Centralbl: f. Miner., etc., 1901, p. 275, 
( 24G ) 
