174 
Prtemnoptcris , Sagcnoptcris, Pterophyllum, and Platyptcrygium, Noggerathi 
opsis, and others. 
This division is the most important one, both from a palaeontological 
and from a stratigraphical point of view. The fossils are represented by 
tlie following genera: — Vertehraria (rare), Neuropteridium (characteristic), 
Glossoptcris, Gcmgcimopteris (numerous) , Nuggeraihiopsis (numerous), Voltzia , 
Samaropsis, &c. 
The Karharbari beds contain very good coal seams, and they are 
especially developed in the Karharbari Coal-field, Daltonganj Coal-field, and 
Mohpain Coal-field. I maintain that they represent a certain horizon. The 
Talchir Group consists in the upper layers of sandy and clayey schists of 
bluish-gray or olive-green colour, and sandstones. The lower portions contain 
a peculiar boulder bed, the origin of which is now generally explained by 
the action of ice. This boulder bed was somewhat more thoroughly 
described in 1856 from tlie Talchir Coal-field in Orissa,* and even at 
that time it was suggested that ice action participated in its deposition. 
In 1872 some boulders were found in this conglomerate in the Central 
Provinces which showed scratches like those caused by glaciers, and since 
then it was considered as a fact that the deposit was due to ice action. Only 
recently the nature of this conglomerate was again discussed by Mr. W. 
T. Blanford.f This boulder bed will chiefly serve us as means of comparison 
of the Indian with the Australian coal and plant beds. 
It has been already shown that the conglomerates in Australia appear 
at the end of the Carboniferous Epoch and that the Newcastle beds are 
probably Permian. A similar correlation will have to take place with regard 
to India. 
1. Erom a stratigraphical and physical point of view the Talchir 
boulder bed lias to be correlated with similar boulder beds at the base of 
the Bacchus Marsh beds, and within the Marine strata. The age would 
therefore be about Upper Carboniferous. 
C. — Lower Division of the Gondwana System. 
( Karharbari beds. 
Talchir Series. < Talchir Shales 
Talchir Group. 
Conglomerate (boulder) bed 
* W. T. and H. F. Blanford and W. Theobald. Mem. Q-eol. Survey India, Vol. I, Pt. 1. 
f Records Geological Survey of India, 1887. Vol. XX, Pt. 1, p 40. 
