_Peninsular India._--The oldest rocks of this region consist of gneiss, granite and other crystalline rocks. They cover a large area in Bengal and Madras and extend into Ceylon; and they are found also in Bundelkhand and in Gujarat. Upon them rest the unfossiliferous strata known to Indian geologists as the Transition and Vindhyan series. The Transition rocks are often violently folded and are frequently converted into schists. In the south, where they are known as the Dharwar series, they form long and narrow bands running from north-north-west to south-south-east across the ancient gneiss; and it is interesting to note that all the quartz-reefs which contain gold in paying quantities occur in the Dharwar series. The Transition rocks are of great but unknown age. The Vindhyan rocks which succeed them are also of ancient date. But long before the earliest Vindhyan rocks were laid down the Transition rocks had been altered and contorted. Occasionally the Vindhyan beds themselves are strongly folded, as in the east of the Cuddapah basin; but this was the last folding of any violence which has occurred in the Peninsula. In more recent times there have been local disturbances, and large faults have in places been formed; but the greater part of the Peninsula rocks are only slightly disturbed. The Vindhyan series is generally sharply marked off from older rocks; but in the Godavari valley there is no well-defined line between them and the Transition rocks. The Vindhyan beds are divided into two groups. The lower, with an estimated thickness of only 2000 ft., or slightly more, cover a large area--extending, with but little change of character, from the Sone valley in one direction to Cuddapah, and in a diverging line to near Bijapur--in each case a distance of over 700 m. The upper Vindhyans cover a much smaller area, but attain a thickness of about 12,000 ft. The Vindhyans are well-stratified beds of sandstone and shale, with some limestones. As yet they have yielded no trace of fossils, and their exact age is consequently unknown. They are however certainly Pre-Permian, and it is most probable that they belong to the early part of the Palaeozoic era. The total absence of fossils is a remarkable fact, and one for which it is difficult to account, as the beds are for the most part quite unaltered. Even if they are entirely of freshwater origin, we should expect that some traces of life from the waters or neighbouring land would be found.