SEC. 10.] NORTH-WESTERN KUTCH. 267 



Some low hilly ground well in the valley south-east of Mhurr 



exposes a nearly horizontal, hard, and very ferru- 

 Lateritic and shale 

 beds of this vaUey south- ginous red spongy-looking breeeiated bed, the 



east of Mhurr. 



upper surface of which is strongly lateritic. It 

 spreads over this broken ground, and underlies yellowish, olive, unfossili- 

 ferous earthy shales or clays. These apparently gain in thickness towards 

 the centre of the valley, and are in places pale, purple, and gypseous 

 with small carbonaceous layers. 



The lateritic beds are very strong at the south-eastern side of the 

 valley, forming a conspicuous red hill — Gatoree — not far from the trap 

 boundary. 



The laterite frequently appears in this neighbourhood surrounding 

 some low basaltic trap inhers and occupying the space between them, 

 and the remainder of the traps to the north-eastward. It is here 

 associated with the usually accompanying white earthy rocks, forming, 

 as elsewhere, rugged broken ground of brilliantly contrasted red and. 

 white colour. On the weathered surface of the smaller of these inliers 

 marked (T) upon the sketch map, PI. VI, very rich iron ore occurs, 

 portions of which are limonite, of an unusual hexagonal form. 



North-east and east of Badra, the laterite rises upon the flanks 

 of the trap hills, forming strong crags and cappings on some of their 

 lower spurs, associated with the lavender and white soft (? tufaceous) 

 deposits, the latter being usually found in the lower situation. Just 

 at the base of the hills, some white and mottled sands and shales 

 with layers and concretions of haematite succeed the more volcanic- 

 looking deposits. 



The stratified trap , hills of this neighbourhood are mostly com- 

 posed of fine-grained solid basalt, amygdaloidal flows being rare. 



( 267 ) 



