510 Reviews — The Great Indian Desert. 



The existence of Marine Cretaceous rocks at Madely separated 

 intervals, near or distant from the coast, is among the local exceptions 

 admitted, and in view of the great terrestrial changes advocated, the 

 fact would seem strong enough to sustain a doubt as to the other 

 sedimentary formations, which contain no fossil evidence to the con- 

 trary, having been deposited on land. 



Turning to the more local subject of the paper, — after describing 

 at some length the physical characters of the Desert, its Zoology and 

 Botany, the author notices the occurrence of depressions in the sur- 

 face of the Desert, and among its sand-hills, usually filled after rain, 

 and sometimes permanently with braokish, saline, or salt water. The 

 ground being itself salt accounts for the saltness of most of these 

 dhands or pools. Of two highly saline localities referred to, one, the 

 furthest from the sea, appears to be the Fanchpadder, an interesting 

 account of which, and its 700 salterns, was given by Sir Alexander 

 Burnes in an early volume of the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal,^ 

 the soil although far inland being clearly indicated as the source of 

 the brine. The other locality is near the river Narra, or old eastern 

 arm of the Indus Delta, said to have discharged itself through the 

 Eunn of Kutch and the Koree estuary near Lukput, before the great 

 earthquake of 1819. In some of the dhands near the Narra, Mr. 

 Blanford found living a marine Mollusc — Potamides (^Pirinella) 

 Zayardi, H. Ad. — precisely like the same species living now on the 

 coast of India. The conclusion arrived at is, that this Mollusc 

 ]nust have inhabited the tract now occupied by sand-hills and 

 dliands when this was in direct communication with the sea, and that 

 the saltness of the soil of the country is due to its having been the 

 bed of the sea or of an inlet, the sand-hills themselves having been 

 formed on the margin of the inlet or lagoon, which was probably 

 partly filled up by accumulations of blown sand. Further argument 

 for the presence of the sea over this country is drawn from the con- 

 dition of the Eunn of Kutch lying about 100 miles to the southward. 



In the Geological Survey of India Memoir upon the Kutch 

 district (vol. ix. part 1) the water-worn, probably sea- worn, form of 

 some of the islet shores of the Eunn, and traditions as to its having 

 in former times been navigable, are mentioned to support the in- 

 ference that it was once submerged and afterwards slightly elevated 

 (of course together with adjacent regions). This submergence 

 would probably have admitted the sea to the valley of the Luni 

 river, whence it is thought part of the salt of the Eunn is derived, 

 and near the upper part of which Fanchpadder is situated. With 

 regard to the sand-hills of the Desert, Mr. Blanford cannot agree 

 with Sir Bartle Frere that they may be due to earthquake action ! 

 Those lying at right angles to the course of the prevalent winds are 

 accounted for in the same way as the small ripple-marks commonly 

 observable upon the surfaces of blown sand ; but others, the longest 

 direction of which coincides with that of the prevailing winds, pre- 

 sent more difficulty. Three modes of explaining the occurrence of 

 these are given — first, that they are the ultimate results of the 

 formation of crescent-shaped sand-hills, the cusps of which, travelling 



1 vol. ii. p. 365. 



