144 



GEOLOGY OF PERIM. 



The various sandstones, clays, and conglomerates of 

 which Perim is composed, are to be referred to the 

 Miocene period of the Tertiary epoch. They are identi- 

 cal in general character with the ossiferous beds of the 

 Sivalik hills or Sub-Himmalayan range, with those of 

 Attock, on the banks of the Indus in the Punjab, and 

 with the Irrawaddi beds in Ava. We find their equiva- 

 lents in the Ked Crag of Suffolk, in England ; in the Faluns 

 of Touraine ; the Orleannais and Sub-Pyrenees in Fi-ance ; 

 the Vienna Basin on the Danube ; and Eppelsheim on the 

 Rhine. 



]\Iajor FuUjames, who seems thoroughly to have ex- 

 plored the island some Twenty years ago, was the fii'st to 

 classify its various strata, and he has made them out 

 thus,* commencing from the surface : — 



1. Loose sand and earth. 



2. Conglomerate, composed of sandstone, clay, 



and silex. 



3. Yellow clay. 



4. Conglomerate. 



5. Calcareo, silicious sandstone, with a few fossils. 



6. Conglomerate. 



7. Indurated clay. 



8. Conglomerate, the principal ossiferous bed. 



It is curious to observe hoAv the conglomerates occur 

 alternately with the other strata. The deepest beds of 

 conglomerate are about three feet, but they do not run 

 more than eighteen inches to two feet, and for the most 

 part lie horizontally. The strata on the western side are 

 much distm-bed, being fractured, and dipping at an acute 

 angle to the east. On the southern end of the island, 



* •'Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol v. page 289. 



