1861.] 
Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 
181 
1st. The fine earthy sandstones of dove and greyish tints, in 
which most of the Glossopteris and Phyllotheca remains are found, 
were so identical with the beds in several parts of India, in which 
similar remains occur, that the specimens on the table might readi- 
ly be supposed to come from Indian localities. Of this character 
specially were some of the “ Upper Damuda” beds in the vicinity of 
Jabalpdr. 
2nd. The Coal of Australia was identical in general character with 
that of India — the same peculiar laminated structure, with mineral 
charcoal in flakes marking the surfaces of the layers ; and further, 
precisely the same curiously curved jointing, which here gives rise 
to that singular structure known as Ball coal, and regarding which 
much has been said and written. Without entering into any question 
as to the cause of this, the specimens on the table shewed the per- 
fect identity of the structure in the Australian Coal with that in 
the Indian rocks. 
3rd. These coincidences were peculiarly interesting, because the 
rocks which exhibit them were known to contain identical fossils. 
But there was still another which might be noticed. The beds which 
in Australia hold so abundantly the remains of Marine Mollusca, 
&c. (the Wollongong sandstones) were in mineral texture identical 
with the peculiar greenish coloured muddy and pebbly sandstones 
which in India are known now as Talchir rocks. And if this simila- 
rity in texture could only be further established by the discovery 
of similar remains in this country, the gain to Indian geology would 
indeed be great. 
If then we are correct in assigning to the Damuda beds in India, 
a geological date, certainly as old as the upper Permian, and we 
admit the synchronism of the Australian rocks containing identical 
plants, there ceased to be such an unbridged interval between these 
and the Lower Carboniferous rocks which underlie them. 
The evidence of a very close analogy between the two series of 
deposits being, therefore, very strong, it may, he thought, be confi - 
dently anticipated, that, while we had received a key to the elucida- 
tion of the fossiliferous deposits in India from Australia, we should 
be able, from a closer investigation of the rocks of this country, to 
throw back a reflected light on the series in Australia, which might 
tend to remove many of the present difficulties and apparent anoma- 
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