98 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [vol. x. 
Note on the Geology of India, by Dr. W. Waagen, formerly Paleontologist to 
the Geological Survey of India. 
(Translated from the “ Zeitschrift der Deuischen Geologischen Gesellschaft,” 
Vol. NXVIII, p. 644,1876.)* 
The work which I do myself the honor of presenting to you is only in its later parts of 
very recent date. The first fasciculus has been already more than two years published. I 
have, however, noticed the general results only in a concluding chapter; and it is those 
especially which can be of general interest. 
First, to rectify some errors which occurred owing to my illness and the consequent 
impossibility of my personal supervision of the preparation of the plates, I must mention 
that the last plate is altogether a failure, only the figure of Crioceras australe being recog¬ 
nisable. Instead of Amm. lieshayesi there is figured the fragment of a Planulata from the 
Macrocephalus-beds, under the title of “ Amm. Martini;'’ and the true Martini is ex¬ 
hibited as “ Amm. lieshayesi ,” but delineated so that the figure is quite useless for the 
recognition of the species.f Other errors, such as the misnumbering of one plate, are easily 
detected and are therefore of less consequence. 
The most striking result of the study of the Cutch ammonites is that the species 
identical with those of Europe are here also distributed strictly in the same horizons as have 
been distinguished there. This discovery is, indeed, due less to me than to the late Dr. 
Stoliczka, who, although fully convinced before his visit to Cutch that it is impossible to 
identify the European horizons in India, could not escape making the stratigraphical groups I 
have adopted in this work, and which do conform to the arrangement of the European zones. 
It is also a very noteworthy fact, that among the ammonites the Macrocephala have a 
very different distribution in India from what they have in Europe; for they still occur 
numerously in a zone corresponding to that of the Pelt, transversarium in Europe. The 
species are, no doubt, clearly distinct from those of Europe ; still they belong to the Macroce¬ 
phala. 
I have only noticed these two facts cursorily. I wish to speak more fully of the dis¬ 
tribution of the jurassic strata in India, for upon this particularly depends to a certain ex¬ 
tent the apprehension of Indiau geology. It has been long known that the peculiar rela¬ 
tion of Indian strata is that, while nearly the entire mesozoic formations are represented in 
the peninsula itself by thick sandstone deposits (Rajmahal, Mahadeva, Jubbulpur, &c.) with 
plant-impressions and some vertebrate remains, on passing to the North-West Himalaya 
one finds numerous marine fossils, which give certainty in the discrimination of the formations. 
On this account, according to Blanford’s example, a Himalayan and a Peninsular type have 
been distinguished, and the areas compared with the alpine and extra-alpine formations of 
Europe. Only the Punjab does not seem to fit in this place, for there we find exclusively 
marine fossils, although one can scarcely place the neighbourhood of the Indus delta with 
the Himalaya. As a fact, however, this is the key to the solution of the whole problem. 
* This communication was made by Dr. Waagen on the occasion of presenting: his work in the Palieontologia 
Indica to the German Geological Society. Besides its direct bearing upon the geology of India, the paper is in 
many ways so illustrative, that it is worth while to reproduce it here.—H. B. M. 
t A new plate is in hand, which will be sent to replace the defective one,—H. B, M, 
