418 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



Habye-Keera line). From 8 the beds do undoubtedly curve down ; and 

 though it seems that their next rise and out-crops is covered by the llunn, 

 yet the beds below them are found in Putchum Island. The highest 

 (latest) beds of Putchum are as a fact the same as the lowest beds of 

 Keera (see Waagen's note on Steph. grantanum) : and the northerly 

 out-crop in Putchum (No. 11) shows the lowest and earliest Cutch beds. 

 But after all to fight over the question of No. 6 being faulted or curved is 

 not so very interesting, and I dare say I am w^rong. 



Ler lies 7 miles S.-E. of Bhuj at the foot of the Oharwar Hills. Hamundra 

 is a tank 3^ miles S. of Bhuj at the foot of the same hills. The distance 



□ Bhuj 



from Ler to Hamundra is 5 miles. As 1^ miles E.S.E. of Hamundra the 

 great Ellipse begins. Its length is 3^ miles: its breadth across the middle 

 about 1^. Its ends off in a fine curve of hills steeply dipping outward, 

 just S. of Ler village ; a nulla and broad valley separate it off from the 

 wider moss of hills behind, so that it forms a complete unit. The backbone 

 of the Ellipse is a range of ridges, flat topped or slightly domed, perhaps 

 300 feet above the plain, set a bit south of the long diameter, their crest 

 and slope to the North being eroded. 



The South side of the Ellipse cau fairly quickly be dismissed : it is a fairly 

 steep slope of S. dipped hills running down to the nullah. The nullah bed 

 first drains the white grey shales of the higher Katrol beds : soon it is 

 found flowing over the smooth floor of the hard brown pavement of the 

 lower Katrol. Presently it has cut down to the yellow crimson pitted 

 pavement of Dhosa Oolite with its swarms of Belemnites and other 

 Molluscs standing out in relief. Further west it reaches Athleta beds, and 

 leaves a cliff on its right of D. O., and, over it, Katrol. On gaining Anceps 

 beds, it scours the soft shale well out, and the clift' on the right shows a 

 good exposure of the white muddy shales and big white nodules of the 

 Athletas, below the D. 0. belt. And on this Anceps floor it sweeps round 

 the curve to Ler, leaving the Sub-Anceps or "Vanguard" hard brown 

 sheets upstanding on its left. The beds of Katrol, D. O. and Athleta curve 

 round too on the right and run up in a tongue to Ler : but their back only 

 dips down slightly to the east, soon rising again to form the back of 

 another Ellipse which starts just beyond Ler and runs east. Besides being 

 an excellent means of following out the succession of strata, the nulla is a 

 perfect mine of fossils. The characteristic fossils of the Katrol beds — 

 torquatus, katrolensis, bathyplocus, chloroolithicus, &c. — stand out in relief 

 on the hard brown rocks. Thorny Aspidoceras and worn Stejj/mnoceras 

 may be found amid the mollusc swarms of the D. 0. slabs: while lower down, 

 there is a regular jumble of all sorts: big; ironstone Katrol specimens, D. O. 

 Belemnites, Athleta Hmpoceras, Anceps Omplialodes, and large plate-shaped 

 Ammonites of the Vanguard slabs — like Paramorphus or Congener. In such 

 a medley a new fossil's origin cannot easily be traced. One fragment of a 

 huge Oppelia has a whorl of the following dimensions: — height 97 mm., 

 height from preceding whorl 60 : breadth 41 : with a series of 8 lobes 



