10 
“ warm Indian climate of the sub-tropical foreign kind, and on this side the northern 
“ temperate climate of home. 
“Where the lofty chain is partly or wholly interrupted by a valley, there the same 
“ necessary moisture is present to produce the climatic conditions as in the majority 
“ of the provinces of our Empire. This mild temperate zone in the Himalayas is 
“ strikingly small, and extends from Northern Bhootan, Northern Nepal (the so-called 
“ Kachar), Northern Kumaon, Gangotri, and Jumnotri, or the provinces of the sources 
“ of the Ganges and Jumna, the western portion of the province of Kunawar, on the 
“ Sutlej, the valley of the .River Wangur, the northern Kulu valley, the Beas river, the 
“ Chundra-bhagar, and the Chenah to Kishtwar and Northern Kashmir. At the widest 
“ portion this zone is 15 miles wide, often only two or three, owing to the approximation of 
“ the lofty chains. If one subjected the fauna and flora of this zone to a special and critical 
“ examination, he would find himself scarcely able to separate 50 per cent, good species 
“ from Central European products, and of the remaining 50 per cent., probably the half, if 
“ not more, would prove to be equivalent species. 
“ There is a peculiar charm when one in his travels far from (real) home sees himself 
“ surrounded by homely familiar forms in a highland country which is still unexplored for 
“ hundreds of square miles, and of which we know nothing, save that it is inhabited by 
“ numerous wandering tribes rich in cows and sheep. We do not yet know the sources of 
“ the Sutlej and Indus. This enormous territory remains still for the inquirer to explore, 
“ who, with the great observer of the coral life of the Pacific Ocean, may observe : ‘ There 
“ is a noble pleasure in deciphering even one sentence in this book of nature. 5 ” 
In this same year, 1866, Stoliczka published (23) a general sketch of the results obtained 
by his preliminary examination of the Cretaceous Gasteropoda of Southern India. It was not 
till about twu years later, October 1868, that the last fasciculus descriptive of this portion 
of his work was issued. 
In his general remarks we find abundant evidence of the wide and masterly view which he 
took of the subject he had in hand. He states (24), for instance, that he has been “ desirous 
“ to prove of what very great importance the study of the fossil Gasteropoda is, with a view 
“ to classification, having repeatedly had occasion to state that without the knowledge of the 
“ fossil forms no natural grouping of shells can ever be obtained. Sufficient zoological 
“ information was somewhat slowly procured, but this was chiefly due to the little attention 
“ that many palaeontologists have paid and still do pay to fossils as zoological objects, con- 
“ sidering that the inquiries about them ought to terminate with the discussion of their 
“ geological value. These obstacles, however, have now happily abated, and will undoubtedly 
“ soon disappear. Geological research requires the determination of fossils, and palseon- 
“ tology asks for an explanation of the time and conditions under which these fossils lived 
“ in connexion with the state of things prior to that geological formation. All other infor- 
“ mation with regard to fossils can only be obtained from zoological sources.” 
Again, having discussed the question of the age of the strata containing the Gasteropoda, 
which, in spite of the occurrence of certain Tertiary forms, he decides to be Upper Cretaceous, 
and corresponding to the Cenomanian and upwards of the European classification, he 
says : — 
“ I entirely reject, however, the argument of some palaeontologists that certain genera are 
“ restricted to certain formations. It is clear that a certain type of Gasteropod, which we 
“ call a genus, must have had. its first appearance somewhere ; but this is a point which 
