1878.] 
Notices of Books . 
277 
Records of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. x., Parts 1, 2, 3. 
i 8 77 - 
The Annual Report of the Survey for the year 1876 contains 
some judicious strictures upon men of science who wish to force 
upon faCts an interpretation favourable to their pet theories. 
The foreign relations of the Gondwana system are becoming, it 
seems, a burning question. “ Palaeontologists come from cabi- 
nets in Europe with the fixed idea that the * laws ’ they have 
seen to work so well as between Bohemia and Bavaria, or from 
Durham to Dorsetshire, will apply equally between India and 
and Australia, or Europe, and the eager aim of their labours 
seems to be to tally off our Indian rock-groups as the repre- 
sentatives or equivalents of certain fossiliferous series in Europe, 
or elsewhere. From the beginning this palaeontological fallacy 
has been the chief obstruction to our knowledge. When first 
the Gondwana fossils were taken, pure geology being in the 
ascendant, the faCt that certain plant forms of the lower Gond- 
wana rocks were somehow associated with beds having a carbon- 
iferous marine fauna in Australia was made the basis of a special 
pleading to show that the Damudas, their flora and their coal, 
were palaeozoic. The materials have now come into the hands 
of a pure palaeontologist. He has shown, I believe, conclusively 
that the Gondwana flora is wholly mesozoic, nailing its several 
phases to certain representative zones in Europe. But it so 
happens that on the confines of India, east and west, the upper 
Gondwana groups are associated with beds having a marine 
fauna, according to which these said groups have already been 
attached by palaeontological experts to other standard groups 
in Europe. It is true that the study of this fauna was only 
partial, but the experts were very accomplished in their line, and 
their judgment was quite unprejudiced, so that it must carry 
great weight. Here then, again, is an opening for the pro- 
crustean method of research ; and there are symptoms that it is 
to be duly applied, this time, to make the fauna conform to the 
flora. The expression ‘ palaeontological contradiction,’ which 
has been applied to this faCt of association, exhibits the predica- 
ment in a very naive manner. The contradiction is certainly 
there, but only as a rebuke for those who can look upon it in that 
light. No theologian could be more impious in reducing the 
mysteries of existence to the compass of his narrow thoughts 
than are often scientific specialists in imposing crude concep- 
tions upon the proceedings of Nature. Yet these ought to know 
better that truth is discovered, not invented.” 
Mr. W. T. Blanford reports on the Great Indian Desert, be- 
tween Sind and Rajpootana, part of which at no remote date 
appears to have been an arm of the sea. 
Dr. Feistmantel describes the occurrence of the cretaceous 
