100 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. j> 0 L. x. 
Finally, I may mention that a part of the original specimens for the work before us 
seem to have been mislaid or lost during the transfer to the new museum building, as I am 
informed from Calcutta that several of the originals are not to be found.* 
Note.— This key to the geology of India is one of the oldest on onr bunch, But somehow the author of the 
paper must have laken a wrong impression of it, for his copy sticks in the lock. At least it seems curious how the 
recognition of the trans-Arvali rocks as belonging to the Himalayan region, should lead directly to the conclusion 
that the jurassics of Western India are more related to those of the antipodes than to those of the Himalayas. 
There must have been some difficult navigation round that ancient mesozoic coast-line, the course of which we 
here find traced with such accuracy, even into regions whose geology is absolutely unknown. 
To any one who has attempted to understand the meaning of the correlation of widely separated deposits, even 
from copious fossil evidence, the assurance tfitli which such conclusions as these are put forward will suggest want 
of confidence. If to the intrinsic uncertainties it be added that the data in this case are not abundant and have 
been only partially worked out, that collateral strati graphical conditions are ignored, assumed, or misstated, the 
impression of doubt will become one of despair. The paper is one of a kind that is now only too common. The 
production of them is no doubt encouraged by the principle of mutual laudation which is the evil spirit of scienti¬ 
fic societies. A curious collection, illustrative of this class of literature, might be made under the title. Oracular 
Palaeontology. It must be a survival (largely Teutonic) of the barbaric instinct to deal in mysteries. The saying 
Arago applied to the geologists of his day may now be more fittingiy addressed to their colleagues—“ Je ne con 9 ois 
pas comment deux pures pal^ontologues peuvent se regarder sans Tire,” 
H. B. M. 
DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM. 
(January to March 1877.) 
Fossils from six localities of the Gondwana and intertrappean rocks 
near Warora ... ... ... ... Walter Ness, Esq. 
A large slab of coal-shale with plant-fossils from Kurhurbari; and 
rock specimens from the boulder-bed in the Talchirs ... Invine J. Whitty, Esq. 
Magnetite and specular iron crystals from Henjam Island, Persian 
Gulf ... ... ... ... ... Captain A. Strife. 
Sulphur, from the neighbourhood of Sibi in Kandahar territory, east 
of Dadur ... ... ... ... «. W. C. Furnivall, Esq. 
ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 
From 1st January to 31st March 1877. 
Titles of Boohs. Donors. 
Beveridge, H.—The District of Bakargunj, its history and statistics (1876), 8vo., London. 
Catron, H.—Reports and official letters to the Kaitakushi (1875), 8vo., Tokei. 
Sib Harry Parkes, Yedo. 
Dumas, E.—Statistique Geologique, Mineralogique, Metallurgique, et Paleontologique du 
Gard, Parts 1 and 2 (1875-76), 8vo., Paris. 
Eastern Persia, 1870-72, Vol. I, Geography with narrative, by Sir F. J. Goldsmid, and 
Vol. II, Zoology and Geology, by W. T. Blanford (1875), 8vo., 
London. 
India Office. 
* Every one of the originals is now in its place in the new museum.—H. B. M, 
