CARBONIFEROUS. 
r> 0 
O cJ 
of the whole section,, specimens of a coral which I cannot dis¬ 
tinguish from the Chatetes last described. 
These are followed in ascending order by beds with carbo¬ 
niferous fossils,, some of which, indeed, were brought home by 
Dr. Gerard many years back, and noticed by Dr. Everest in his 
communication to the Asiatic Society.* The two sections 
present, indeed, such parallel features, that some notice must 
be taken of each in the following descriptions. 
CARBONIFEROUS. 
Neither in the collection made by Colonel Strachey in the 
Niti Pass, nor in those brought by Gerard or Prof. Oldham 
from the Spiti, is there more than a very scanty development of 
the mountain limestone formation. It is not easy, indeed, to 
distinguish it from the great series which follows, and which 
includes the Triassic fauna. But so far as known, the same 
genera, and in many cases the same species, are common to India 
and Northern Europe, a circumstance well worthy of notice. 
The mountain limestone shells seem to have been cosmopoli- 
tan. In Dr. Gerard's collection at Oxford,f the common Pro- 
ductus of our own rocks— P. semireticulatus or P. antiquatus 
(for it is equally well-known under both names) is conspicuous, 
while the commonest fossil in Colonel Strachey's series is the uni¬ 
versal Athyris Roissyi. It is the same in other Indian localities. 
Dr. Fleming's researches in the Punjab, 1848-1S52, made, 
us acquainted with the rich carboniferous strata of the Salt 
range4 Many of the fossils enumerated in his paper (Quart. 
Jour. Geol. Society, vol. ix., 1853) could not be distinguished 
* Asiatic Researches of the Bengal Society, vol. xviii. 
f By great good fortune a series of Dr. Gerard’s original fossils, pre¬ 
sented by Captain Gerard to Dr. Buckland, arc preserved in the Geological 
Museum of Oxford. I have had the opportunity of studying these, through 
the kindness of Prof. Phillips. 
1 Fleming, Journal As. Society, Bengal, 1853. Report of the Geologi- 
cal Structure and Mineral Wealth of the Salt Range, 1851. 
