12 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[ VOL. v. 
descriptions of that splendid series of fossils, the finest probably ever obtained from one 
limited district. The Pelecypoda have been treated with the same fulness of detail as the 
other groups, and the volume will be found to constitute a . general treatise on the classifica¬ 
tion and relations of the fossil and recent bivalves generally, as well as a detailed descrip¬ 
tion oi the specific forms noticed in Southern India. This volume hears stronger testimony 
than any words of mine could to the ability and unceasing zeal of our Paleontologist, 
Dr. P. Stoliczka. 
The next group to be taken up, the Brachiopoda, are all arranged for the drawings and 
plates, and the MSS. descriptions have been completed. 
In addition to the completion of this volume of the cretaceous fossils, a fasciculus has 
been published descriptive of some peculiar crabs found fossil in the tertiary rocks of Sind 
and Cutch, also prepared by Dr. P. Stoliczka. 
Almost immediately on Dr. W. Waagen’s joining the Survey last year, the entire series 
of the Cephalopod fossils, collected in Kutch, was placed in his bands for careful examin¬ 
ation and description. For this Dr. Waagen was singularly well qualified by his intimate and 
accurate knowledge of the jurassie rocks of Europe, and by his previous studies in this 
special family of organic remains. The result has fully justified our well grounded expecta¬ 
tions. The last number of the Records of the Survey contained a brief abstract of his 
researches. These are such as cannot fail to prove of the highest importance in their 
bearing on Indian Geology, and brief as this mere abstract is, it is certainly one of the 
most valuable contributions yet made to Indian Palaeontology. Not less than about 80 
species of Ammonites alone have been recognized, of which 73 have been procured in suffi¬ 
cient preservation to bo specifically described. Of these 73, 37 are old and well known species, 
and 36 are now for the first time described. Of all these, Dr. Waagen completed the detailed 
descriptions and careful drawings before going to the field. These drawings are now 
being lithographed. 
The rich collections of fossils from Indian rocks (although as a whole the greater part 
of the country is singularly barren of any organic remains) which have been so rapidly 
accumulated are now being so expeditiously and systematically examined that the publication 
of them is limited only by the very small sum at our disposal for such purposes. The 
present rate of issue of the Palmontologia Indica could he with ease doubled if funds were 
available. 
Of the Memojes of the Geological Survey two volumes are nearly ready, but have been 
unavoidably delayed by accidential injuries to lithographs, so that they could not be published 
before the close of the year. 
Maps. —Sanction having been given to the publication of the larger scale maps which, 
whenever available, are always used in our field examination, arrangements have been in 
progress for carrying out this system. It has been necessary to make several trials before 
finally adoptiug any one plan, inasmuch as it is essential that all should be published on an 
uniform system, of colouring, of arrangement of maps, &c., &c. Draughtsmen had also to be 
trained to the work, differing essentially as it does from ordinary mapping work. These 
preliminary and tentative proceedings will now soon be brought to a close, and I expect 
that a short time will see the whole in good working order. A similar series of preliminary 
trials has been found essential in the lithographing of the maps for final colouring. In 
these, we are greatly indebted to the friendly interest which Captain Murray, of the Surveyor 
