Geology Of India Research Articles

Geology of India for Students. By D. N. Wadia, M.A., B.Sc. pp. xx + 398, with 20 plates and 37 figures in the text. London: Macmillan & Co. 1919. Price 18s.net.

Geology of India for Students. By D. N. Wadia, M.A., B.Sc. pp. xx + 398, with 20 plates and 37 figures in the text. London: Macmillan &amp; Co. 1919. Price 18<i>s</i>.net.

Geology of India for Students

Geology of India for Students

Indian Geology 1

THE appearance of a manual of Indian geology of so excellent a character as the present work, written by an Indian geologist, is an event of some importance, since it furnishes a fresh and convincing answer to the argument so often put forward that the Oriental mind, though it may assimilate the ideas of Western science with ease, is yet incapable of applying the principles of that science to original research. It is true that the author in his preface modestly admits that the book is in the main a compilation; yet the able manner in which he has marshalled the facts, and the clearness of his reasoning, especially when dealing with matters that are still open to controversy, show that he is by no means lacking in originality of thought and expression.

A Bibliography of Indian Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of Minerals of Economic Value

A Bibliography of Indian Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of Minerals of Economic Value

A Bibliography of Indian Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of Minerals of Economic Value

A Bibliography of Indian Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of Minerals of Economic Value

II.—A Bibliography of Indian Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of Minerals of Economic Value. Compiled by T. H. D. La Touche, M.A., F.G.S., F.A.S., Bengal. Published by Order of the Government of India, and printed in Calcutta for the Geological Survey of India. London: Kegan Paul &amp; Co. Imp. 8vo. Part I (1917), pp. xxviii + 571,

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Indian Geology - II.—The Geology of North-Eastern Rajputana and Adjacent Districts. By A. M. Heron, B.Sc., F.G.S., Assoc.Inst.C.E., Assistant Superintendent, Geological Survey of India. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xlv, pt. i. Calcutta, 1917. Price 4s.

Indian Geology - II.—The Geology of North-Eastern Rajputana and Adjacent Districts. By A. M. Heron, B.Sc., F.G.S., Assoc.Inst.C.E., Assistant Superintendent, Geological Survey of India. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xlv, pt. i. Calcutta, 1917. Price 4s. - Volume 5 Issue 4

X. On the structure and development of the skull and laryngeal cartilages of perameles, with notes on the cranial nerves

The research described in this paper was begun by Mr. P. W. Palmer in 1912, at the suggestion of Prof. G. Elliot Smith. During the following year he published a short paper “On the Lower Jaw and Ear Ossicles of a Fœtal Perameles,” the specimen to which he referred being the 23·0 mm. greatest length fœtus mentioned below. Palmer also modelled the skulls of the 15·5 mm. and 16·0 mm. stages and the internal labyrinth of the 23·0 mm. fœtus, making notes on the work as far as he had taken it. On Mr. Palmer’s appointment to the Indian Geological Survey the work was handed over to me for completion. I am glad to have this opportunity of thanking Mr. Palmer for giving me the use of his models and notes; some of the latter are embodied in the present paper.

Coal in India

THIS work constitutes volume xli. of the memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, and its publication will rank high on the already long list of works upon the economic mineralogy of India, for which we are indebted to the Indian Geological Survey. Unlike many others, the authorities responsible for the geological survey of the Peninsula have realised the full importance of the economic side of their work, and have devoted much attention to it, to the manifest advantage of the Indian mineral industry. The present work is the more opportune because in spite of the rapidly increasing importance of the coal production of India, no connected account of the Indian coalfields, as they now exist, was anywhere available, and information concerning individual coalfields or collieries had to be collected from a very miscellaneous series of publications; how widely scattered this information is may be gathered from the bibliography appended to the present treatise, which covers no fewer than twenty pages of the book. The Coalfields of India. By the late Prof. V. Ball. Entirely revised and largely re-written by R. R. Simpson. Pp. 147 + xliv. (Calcutta: Published by order of the Government of India, 1913.)

On the Geology of Antigua and other West Indian Islands with reference to the Physical History of the Caribean Region

I. I ntroduction . M y paper on the ‘Geological Connexions of the Caribean Region’ dealt as a whole with the Atlantis Problem and the changes on the earth connected therewith. Among other matters, I indicated the course of the dislocation (which I will call the great Antillean Dislocation) passing along the chain of the Antilles from Trinidad to Sombrero, and thence as I suggested through the northern part of the Island of Haiti. To make such further observations as were possible to me despite my physical disabilities, I undertook a voyage to Antigua and the neighbouring islands in the early part of 1910. In the preparation of this paper I have consulted all the authorities available to me, but I have made-most use of the papers by Purves and Spencer. For Dr. J. W. Spencer's papers I am indebted to himself, and for Purves's I am indebted to the Natural History Society of Belgium. II. C onsiderations on the G eology of A ntigua . Geologists and all interested in West Indian geology owe much to men who, like Nugent (a resident) and Purves (a visitor), under-take to furnish a careful and conscientious account of the features of a neglected and despised island such as Antigua, High praise is due to them. In the time of Nugent (1819) geological science was in a backward state, and he did not therefore enjoy the means that his successor possessed of dealing with geological subjects. Yet Nugent's work is the basis of our knowledge of the geology of Antigua.

II.—Geology of India - General Report of the Geological Survey of India for 1906, by T. H. HollandF.R S., F.G.S.,, Director. The Mineral Production of India during 1905, by T. D. LatoucheB.A., F.G.S. Numerous papers of Indian Geology by Officers of the Geological Survey of India.—All the above extracted from the “Records.”

II.—Geology of India - General Report of the Geological Survey of India for 1906, by T. H. HollandF.R S., F.G.S.,, Director. The Mineral Production of India during 1905, by T. D. LatoucheB.A., F.G.S. Numerous papers of Indian Geology by Officers of the Geological Survey of India.—All the above extracted from the “Records.”

III.—Geology of India - General Report of the Geological Survey of India for 1906, by T. H. Holland F.R.S., F.G.S., Director. The Mineral Production of India during 1905, by T. D. Latouche B.A., F.G.S., The Geology of the State of Panna, Principally with reference to the Diaond-bearing Deposits, by E. Vredenburg, A.R.C.S., F.G.S.; also numerous papers on Indian Geology by

III.—Geology of India - General Report of the Geological Survey of India for 1906, by T. H. Holland F.R.S., F.G.S., Director. The Mineral Production of India during 1905, by T. D. Latouche B.A., F.G.S., The Geology of the State of Panna, Principally with reference to the Diaond-bearing Deposits, by E. Vredenburg, A.R.C.S., F.G.S.; also numerous papers on Indian Geology by

I.—The Geology of India - The Imperial Gazetteer of India. New Edition. Oxford, 1907.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

III.—On the Origin of certain Laterites

The various views put forth prior to 1893 to account for the origin of Indian laterites have been clearly and sufficiently discussed in Oldham's edition of Medlicott &amp; Blanford's Manual of the Geology of India (pp. 369 et seq.). Since that year the only contribution of importance to the literature of lateritic genesis in India is a paper by Mr. Thos. H. Holland, F.R.S., the present Director of the Indian Geological Survey, having for its text the conclusions of Bauer. In it the author suggested that laterite might owe its origin to “some lowly organism,” but no sufficient data were advanced in support of the suggestion. Bauer's specimens indicated a certain amount of dehydration in laterites, and this fact, together with the absence of hydration products from certain peridotites in Southern India, was deemed to indicate a general dehydration for the bauxitic laterites of the Deccan. The gibbsite (Al2 O3, 3 H2O) of laterite was supposed to be dehydrated to diaspore (A2 O3, H2O), and it was assumed that “this irregular loss of water is probably the cause of variation in bauxite.”

Dr. William Thomas Blanford, F.R.S.

THE tidings of Dr. Blanford's death will be received with sorrow among men of science all over the world. His many-sided accomplishments had given him a notable place among geologists, geographers, palæontologists, and zoologists, and his gentle, kindly, unassuming nature had gained him an abiding place in the affectionate regard of all who came to be associated with him. Born on October 7, 1832, in London, he early developed a taste for scientific pursuits, and was accordingly sent to the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, where he distinguished himself as a student, under De la Beche, Playfair, Edward Forbes, Ramsay, Smyth, and Percy. From London he passed to the famous mining academy at Freiberg. Having thus obtained an excellent training, he was, in 1855, appointed to the Geological Survey of India under its founder, Thomas Oldham. For some twenty-seven years he continued to devote his energies to Indian geology, making wide acquaintance with the rocks and scenery of the great Dependency, and enriching the publications of the Survey with maps and descriptive memoirs. Had he chosen to remain longer in the service, he would soon have been placed at its head; but in 1882 he resolved to retire on the pension which he had well earned, and to establish himself in London. Among the great services which he rendered to science during his stay in India, perhaps the most important was the preparation, in concert with his colleague, H. B. Medlicott, of a “Manual of the Geology of India.” This invaluable treatise gave for the first time a succinct general view of the geological structure and history of the whole country. It has taken its place as one of the classic text-books of the science.

Henry Benedict Medlicott, F.R.S.

ON April 6 there passed away one of the few survivors amongst the small body of men who laid the foundations of Indian geology. Despite much excellent work, chiefly by non-professional men, very little was really known of the geology of India, and especially of Peninsular India, before the middle of the nineteenth century, and as one instance amongst many, the Vindhyans, now believed to be Archæan, were still classed with Gondwana Permo-Carboniferous strata, and both were regarded as of Jurassic age. A comparison of Dr. Carter's “Summary of the Geology of India between the Ganges, the Indus and Cape Comorin,” published in 1853, with the “Manual of the Geology of India,” issued in 1879, Will show the great improvement that took place in the meantime in our knowledge of the country.

V.—The Petrographical Characters of the Darjíling Gneiss

Well known as Darjiling is to nearly every stray traveller in India, the solid geology of the district has been left almost (I believe quite) untouched since the publication of Mallet's paper in 1874. There the Darjíling gneiss was described as the metamorphosed representative of the sedimentary Gondwana rocks of the south, and has so remained, albeit under protest, for a disclaiming paragraph appears in the Manual of the Geology of India. In the report of the Committee on the recent landslip at Darjíling it is stated that the rock of the country consists of “a well foliated and banded biotite gneiss with occasional lenses and deformed veins of granitic rock”; moreover, that “the foliation planes are often highly contorted”; and Mallet defines it as true gneiss “passing into mica schist or an intermediate variety.” These descriptions are meagre, and it is hoped that the following notes on specimens collected by the author may not be superfluous.

III.—Indian Geology - 1. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxv: Geology of Bellary District, Madras Presidency. By R. Bruce Foote F.G.S., F.M.U. Superintendent, Geological Survey of India. 8vo ; pp. xviii and 218 (1895), with a folding geologically coloured map of the Bellary District (October, 1896). (Calcutta, 1897.) - 2. The Geology of Baroda State. By R.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

On Nemalite from Afghánistán

In 1887, when I was in charge of the Indian Geological Survey laboratory, a specimen of a mineral recently discovered in Afghanistán was sent to Calcutta by the British Agent at Kábul, with a request for information as to its nature and value. It proved to be nemalite, and a quantitative analysis of it, which was subsequently made by Mr. T. Blyth, is published in the fourth part of A Manual of the Geology of India, p. 161. As it seemed possible that the mineral might be capable of some useful application if plentiful, and it was in any case of mineralogical interest, a request was made to the Agent for further information about it, including the locality where it was found, and for additional specimens,

A Geographical History of Mammals

THERE can be no doubt about Mr. Lydekker's qualifications to enter on the field of geographical distribution. The author of the excellent treatise on mammals in the “Royal Natural History,” after serving an apprenticeship on the Indian Geological Survey, has arranged and catalogued the splendid series of remains of extinct mammals in the British Museum. Alone of European palœontologists, he has likewise visited the rich collections recently amassed in the museums of Buenos Ayres and La Plata. He has thus the advantage, not possessed by any previous writer on the subject, of a more intimate acquaintance with the past history of mammals than perhaps any other living naturalist has been able to accumulate, and on the present occasion has made good use of it.