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(2) "Indian Tertiary Gastropoda, V; Fusida, Turbinellida, Chrysodomida, Strepturida, Buccinidæ, Nassidæ, Columbellida, with short diagnoses of new species; by the late E. W. Vredenburg.

(3)

"On the structure of the Cuticle in Glossopteris angustifolia Brongn."; by Prof. B. Sahni.

(4) "Revision of some Fossil Balanomorph Barnacles from India and the East Indian Archipelago "; by T. H. Withers.

(5) "Oligocene Echinoidea collected by Rao Bahadur S. Sethu Rama Rau in Burma"; by the late E. W. Vredenburg. Other works in the course of publication, or accepted for publication, include:

(1) "On the Blake collection of Ammonites from Kachh" "; by Dr. L. F. Spath.

(2) "Fossil Molluscs from the Oil Measures of the Dawna Hills"; by Dr. N. Annandale.

(3) "Notes on an Armoured Dinosaur from the Lameta Beds of Jubbulpore"; by Dr. Matley,

(4) "On some Fossil forms of Placuna"; by the late E. W. Vredenburg.

(9) "On the Phylogeny of some Turbinellida"; by the late E. W. Vredenburg.

(6) "A Provisional List of Fossils collected in Yunnan by Dr. J. Coggin Brown"; by Dr. Cowper Reed.

(7) "On a Calcareous Alga belonging to the Triploporelleœ (Dasycladaceae) from the Tertiary of India"; by John Walton.

(8) "The Perissodactyla of the Eocene of Burma "; by Dr. G. E. Pilgrim.

(9)

On a Fossil Ampullarid from Poonch, Kashmir"; by Dr.
B. Prashad.

The fourth part of Mr. T. D. LaTouche's Bibliography of Indian Geology, which consists of a Palæontological Index, is in final proof form and should be issued early in 1924.

Dr. J. Coggin Brown continued to act as Paleontologist throughout the year, and during the period has been assisted by SubAssistant Harendra Mohan Lahiri. A considerable amount of labour was involved in the removal of the type collections of the Depart

ment to a more

convenient situation on the first floor of the office and in the checking and redisposal of large accumulations of fossils, removed from the collections in the Museum for purposes of study, over a period of years.

Routine determinative work from extra-departmental sources, accomplished during the year, included the examination of fossil collections-some of them of large size-from the Nummulitic rocks of the North-West Frontier Province, from the Tertiary deposits of Assam, Burma and Kathiawar and from the Quetta Museum.

A large collection of fossils from the Burmese Tertiary rocks was brought together for the branch office of the Geological Survey of India in Rangoon, and a somewhat smaller one was presented to the Burmah Oil Co., Ltd., in return for the numerous donations received from the Company in the past. Several casts of Siwalik Vertebrates were presented to the Muséum National d' Histoire naturelle, Paris. Amongst the Indian specimens added to the collections, in addition to those brought in by officers of the Geological Survey of India, the following deserve especial mention :

(1) A large collection of Jurassic ammonites from Kachh, presented by Mr. J. H. Smith through the Bombay Natural History Society.

(2) Tertiary fossils from Dwarka, Kathiawar, presented by Mr. F. L. G. Simpson.

(3) Plant impressions and fish-spines from the Kamapyin coalfield, Mergui district, Burma, presented by Burma Finance. and Mining, Ltd.

(4) A small collection of Tertiary fossils from Bagmara, Assam, presented by the Burmah Oil Co., Ltd.

(5) A large oyster from Swallow Lane, Calcutta, presented by Mr. H. de C. Baillardie.

(6) A collection of Cretaceous ammonites from the Trichinopoly district, Madras, presented by Messrs. Staines & Co., Coimbatore.

The Jurassic ammonites from Kachh received through the generosity of Mr. J. H. Smith of Bhuj, represent the results of several years' collecting, and form the largest donation of its kind received by the Department for a number of years. Arrangements have been made for the specimens to be described by Dr. L. F.

Spath of the British Museum, to whom has also been entrusted the task of revising the types of the Kachh ammonites described in 1873-76 by Waagen (Pal. Indica, Ser. IX, Vol. I).

The occurrence in Swallow Lane, Calcutta, of large oysters of which a specimen was presented by Mr. H. de C. Baillardie, is not without interest. The species has been determined as Ostræa gryphoides Schlotheim. In 1904, an oyster band containing similar remains was found 5 feet below surface level in Clive Street, only 150 yards in a straight line from Swallow Lane. The occurrence was described by the late Mr. E. W. Vredenburg in Records, volume XXI, pages 174-176 (1904). It is referred to in the General Report for the period April 1903 to December 1904 (Records, vol. XXXII, p. 136) where Mr. Vredenburg's conclusion that the bed was in situ was naturally held to prove oscillations of the relative level of land and sea in recent geological times. At a later date (Records, vol. XLII, pp. 1-15 (1912) Messrs. Bullen Newton and Smith, as the result of an examination of other specimens found below the level of Clive Street, threw grave doubts on the theory that the oyster bed had a natural marine origin. Dr. Coggin Brown has discussed the whole matter in the light of the present find in a paper entitled "On the Occurrence of Ostroa gryphoides Schlotheim, in Calcutta" to be published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and in it concludes that "the last discovery, in the absence of further evidence, has left the problematical origin of the Clive Street oyster bed precisely where it was before."

Since this paper was written further evidence has been forthcoming in the shape of new deep excavations in Swallow Lane. A detailed examination of these, before they were filled in, revealed the presence of cinders and broken pottery amongst the oyster shells some 5 or 6 feet below road level, so that it can now be definitely asserted that the shells were deposited on their present site by human agency in comparatively recent times. The older theory that the deposits immediately underlying Calcutta are of fresh-water or estuarine origin without any traces of marine sediments, must, therefore, again be upheld.

In September last, during the progress of widening operations on the main line of the East Indian Railway a short distance beyond Asansol, several large fossil trees of Gondwana age were unearthed. Unfortunately, most of them were destroyed before information reached

this Department, but one has been saved and has been promised to the Geological Survey of India by the East Indian Railway Company, who have further kindly consented to transport it to Calcutta. The locality was examined by Mr. H. Crookshank.

Mud Volcano.

A new island was formed off the Arakan coast about 8 miles south of Tiger Point on West Baronga Arakan Coast, Burma. Island (lat. 19° 30′; long. 93° 2′ 15′′) and

was first discovered on the 14th November 1923. It was examined eleven days later by the Port Officer, Akyab, who has been kind enough to supply further details. The island was reported to consist of "black mud which being in lumps gives the idea of rocks." It is described as flat-topped with perpendicular sides, the latter being evidently the result of marine denudation, and was expected to disappear at an early date leaving the usual dangerous shoal. On the 25th November its height was 30 feet and length 200 feet. The island is the result of a "mud volcano," the rock-like lumps and débris being partly composed of fragments of the stratified rocks through which the eruption has made its way. It is on the same line of strike as the large well-known "mud volcano' in Cheduba Island. There is of course nothing truly volcanic about such phenomena which are caused by pressure of petroleum gas below the surface.

ECONOMIC ENQUIRIES.

Apatite.

Apatite was found in the Seraikela State and adjoining portions of the Singhbhum district by Mr. J. A. Dunn, who considers that there may be sufficient to repay careful prospecting.

Asbestos.

Poor asbestos in narrow veins was found by Mr. Tipper in the basic rocks in the stream running west from the glacier above the camping ground of Deh Shal on the road from the Shah Janali Pass in Chitral.

Chitral.

Building Materials.

Mr. Hallowes reports that the biotite-granite-gneiss of many localities in Hyderabad would furnish sound and durable stone suitable for the construction of houses or docks, and, when polished, ornamental material for pillars. Cubes of the stone from the nineteen chief quarries of the area were collected for tests. These shewed a specific gravity of 2·61-2-68, and a crushing strength varying from 14:40 to 23:04 tons per square inch. The absorption of each fresh unaltered stone after soaking for twenty-four hours in water is practically nil. In weathered samples the specific gravity and the crushing strength were found to be low, while the absorption of the stone to water became appreciable.

Central Provinces.

Pench Valley: Central Provinces.

Coal.

The attempt to prove the existence or non-existence of coalfields beneath the Deccan Trap in western India Bhusawa!; Bombay. was continued during the year under review. The boring of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company between 1,165 and 1,217 feet passed through nothing but fine-grained traps with green earth. (See General Reports for 1920 and 1921). During late December 1922 and early January 1923 Mr. H. Walker was occupied in sampling the seams of coal worked at the Sasti and Ghugus collieries of the Ballarpur Colliery Company in the Central Provinces. At the request of the Central Provinces Government Mr. G. V. Hobson was instructed to carry out an inspection of various collieries in the Pench Valley coalfield, chiefly with the object of deciding whether it would be possible, by relaxing certain regulations in the coal leases, to put Central Provinces' coal on a more secure footing and enable it to compete more successfully with the Bengal and Bihar and Orissa products and more especially with imported coal from Natal. Mr. Hobson has submitted a report on the various areas with remarks on the general coal situation in the Pench Valley. In view of the profound importance to the steel industry of India of adequate supplies of coking coal, the Coal Washing. Government of India have during the past year, given financial support to some experiments on the cleaning of the various Indian coals by the Froth Flotation process. These

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