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174 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



Cutch, the Pacbam Pir which rises directly from the Rann to a 

 heio-ht of 1 437 feet. A most extensive view can he ohtained from 

 the summit of this mountain. Beyond a waste of salt and water the 

 Parkur hills are visible, and to the south and south-east appear 

 the dark surface of the Banni and the Cutch hills. The island is 

 surrounded by a margin of low ground of no great width, but narrow- 

 est where the mountains rise most steeply from the Rann on the north- 

 ern side. Sheets of hajraatitic laterite overlap and wrap round the 

 jurassics on the west and south of the low ground, sometimes 

 •issociated with earthy rocks and beds resembling volcanic ash. 

 Hio-her up the beds consist of fine white and light coloured silicious 

 sandstone with calcareous bands and sandy slightly ferruginous purple 

 beds ; pale flaggy sandstones also occur. 



This is not the place to enter into a discussion as regards the 

 uro-uments of geologists or an examination of the traditions of the 

 na'tives to the effect that the Rann was once submerged. D. Oldham — 

 (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. IX, p. 28) came to ^ 

 the following conclusions : " To whatever causes the great plains of 

 Sind and the coast plains of Western India are due, that of the Rann . 

 may also be ascribed. Its origin must be traced further back than 

 the formation of the deltas of the Indus and other neighbouring rivers, 

 because something in the nature of a plain or open ground was neces- 

 sary to receive such deposits. This open ground was here more hilly 

 than to the north in all probability, for the high islands which rise from 

 the Rann are evidently but the modified summits of an older surf\ice ; 

 und the silting-up of the sea-inlet which it formed was only the 

 natural result'' of its land-locked capacity to retain the materials 

 brought down by rivers. The Bunnee is a bank formed most pro- 

 bably by the discharge of the Kutch streams ; and the slight elevation 

 ^n mas... which subjected the old shore-deposits to denudation has 

 aided the tendency of the basin to retain transported sediment, which 

 must accumulate yearly under present circumstances until the rivers 

 that convey it find their way across the tract through channels 

 traversing an alluvial plain." 



So far geology on the origin of the Rann. Are we able from the 

 oondition^'and "characters of the present flora of Pacham Island to 

 derive any argument for or against ths views expressed by 

 ireolo^rists ? If't-ie island contained no endemic species, but were 



