90 
Records of f/ie Geohcj'ir.al Siirvei/ of India. 
[VOL. XIII. 
chain of hills, where we find Triassic marine beds immediately in rear of the 
advancing “landwave”, which brought mesozoic forms of life to India from 
Australia. 
It is at least probable that the later Carboniferous forms wandered westwards 
from Australia during Permian times and reached India in that epoch ; in the wide 
basin-shaped folds of the crystallines and oldest palaeozoic rocks of the peninsula 
great inland lakes were depositing material for ages during the whole of the 
middle and close of the paleeozoic times. The same conditions but on an altered 
surface, still prevailed to a certain extent during the Permian times, for we see 
the oldest deposits of the incoming period deposited in wide and ajiparently open 
basins,—side by side with the basins of the palmozoic epochs. During the enor¬ 
mous periods of the Tria.ssic aud Rlnetic times, when huge deposits of marine 
beds took place in the northern or Himalayan region, the same south-eastern 
pressure continued more or less, with the result of still more elevating and drain¬ 
ing the peninsula, converting the lake-basins into great river valleys, at the same 
time depressing the Central Asian triassic sea, thus uniting the European (Alpine) 
with the Armenian (Asia Minor, Caucasus) with the Northern (Siberia) 
and Southern (Himalayan) basins, the deposits of which all show the most 
wonderful similarity of animal life 'which must have existed in those times. 
Another link in the chain of evidences in this direction is the continuity of 
Mesozoic freshwater deposits of South and Central iAfrica, ivhere we find the 
extensive Karoo series from the bottom boulder-bcds (= Talchira) to the topping 
sandstones of the Di'akensborg mountains as nearly the same series, and con¬ 
taining similar species of fossil plants and terrestrial animals, as our own Gond- 
wfinas. Such an extensive rise of land may well correspond to a widespread 
triassic ocean extending over the north-western half of Asia and a great part of 
Europe. 
After the deposition of the youngest members of the RhEctic or lower Lias, a 
change in the outline of the great southern continent takes place. Part of the 
present Indian ocean was formed, aud the sea encroached along the western 
margin of the iiresent peninsula, thus enabling the fluviatile deposits of the 
upper Gondwanas to mingle, with the upper Jurassios of Cntch. Similar changes 
took place along the southern coast of Africa, ride the Jurassics of Uitenhage. 
Pi'obably the great island of Madagascar is a standing monument of the former 
extent of the triassic continent of Gondwana-Karoo type. Extensive sandstone 
deposits fringing the crystalline centre are described to occur in the island. 
Indeed, the partial disturbance of post-Liassic times coiTesponds with the 
reported overlap of the upper Gondwanas (Mahadevas) over the older Gond¬ 
wanas, and also with the absence in the Central Himalayan area of the Lo-iver 
Oolite; on the lowest Liassic beds (which possibly belong really to the upper 
RhEetics) follow immediately the Spiti shales of upper-middle Oolitic age. 
10. The lower Trias in the marine and in the continental regions .—Long ago 
attention was directed to the Triassic deposits of the Alps by the excellent works 
of the Austrian geologists, being remarkable as containing a singular admixture 
of Palaeozoic forms of life with Mesozoic types. This is especially the case in the 
oldest Trias beds,—in the so-called Werfen beds, which lately have been divided 
