1% WYNNE: GEOLOGY OF THE SALT EANGE IN WIE PUNJAB. 



(west of) Sakesir he observed an anticlinal structure again, and he 

 thought the elevation of the Himalayas coeval with that of the Salt 

 Range, "this fact fully explainiog the anomalous dip along their 

 southern side of the newer formations under the metamorphic schists 

 of the central ridge as observed by Captain Strachey/^ 



On reading this report, it becomes evident that the impossibility of 

 reconciling the series of the Salt Range with those of Europe on the 

 basis of its saline and coal-bearing groups being equivalent to the trias 

 and carboniferous had struck Dr. Fleming, but he still adhered to the 

 idea of more or less close correlation, and, apparently commencing from 

 the carboniferous limestone, referred the groups above to the tertiary and 

 oolitic periods and below to the Devonian, in the latter of which he 

 placed the salt and its associated rocks. 



The most important geological discovery made by Dr. Fleming was, 

 perhaps, that of the existence of carboniferous strata in the western part 

 of the range, when returning from his first visit in 1848. Amongst the 

 fossils which he then found, he names Troductus, Terehraiula, Spirifer^ 

 Ammonites, and Belemnites. These were sent to Europe for identification, 

 and, through the intervention of the late Sir R. I. Murehison, examined 

 by M. de Verneuil, who determined " five out of eight or nine species'' 

 to be "forms well known in the rocks of carboniferous age.'' The 

 Ammonites and Belemnites are alluded to with doubt in the larger report, 

 at page 260, as "what we took for" these fossils ; but although Ceratites 

 are subsequently mentioned as having been found, the author asserts 

 that these belonged to the carboniferous limestone, on the strength of their 

 occurrence with Orthoceraiites. 



It would appear that the salt was supposed by Dr. Fleming to consist 

 of a single bed, and he alludes to a singularly eruptive appearance of the 

 accompanying marl, though its stratification at the west side of the range 

 " negatives the idea." He thinks it probable, however, that " it has 

 undergone metamorphism from igneous influence," notwithstanding the 

 absence of " plutonic or volcanic rocks by which this might have been 

 ( 12 ) 



