174 JOURNAL, BO MBA Y NATURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. XIX 



Cutch, the Pachum Pir which rises directly from the Rami o a 

 height of I 137 feet, A most extensive view can be obtained from 

 rhe 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 surfaue of the Bauni and the Cutcli hills. The island is 

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

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

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

 Jurassic- on the west and south of the low ground, sometimes 

 iated with earthy rock- and beds resembling volcanic; ash. 



associ 



Higher up the beds consist of fine white and light coloured silieious 

 sandstone with calcareous bands and sandy slightly ferruginous purple 

 beds : pale flaggy sandstones also occur. 



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

 arguments of .geologists or an examination of the traditions of the 

 natives to the effect thai the Rann was once submerged. D. Oldham 

 [Memoirs of the Geological Survej of India, Vol. IX. p. 28) came to 

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

 Sind and the cast plains „f Western India are due, that of the Rann 

 may also 1 e ascribed. Its origin mu-i be traced further hack than 

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

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

 sary tn receive such deposits. This open ground was hero more hill) 

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

 the Rami are evidently but the modified summits of an older surface ; 

 am l the silfing-up of the sea-inlet which it formed was only the 

 rulturil ] result of its land-locked capacity to retain the materials 

 b' roU ghi down by rivers. The Utmnee is a bank formed most pro- 

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

 ..„ maw w Wcli subjected the nlil shore-deposits to denudation has 

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

 mUB l accumulate year!) under present circumstances until the rivers 

 that convey it tind their way across the tract through channels 

 traversing an alluvial plain." 



So far geology on the origin ol the Rami. Are we able from the 



tio„ and characters of the present flora of Pacham Island to 



derive anv argument for or against tin views expressed by 



[ft:,,, land contained no endemic species, but were 



