SPECKLED SANDSTONE. 01 



prominent as a thick mass forming- its upper part."^ As might he expected 

 from the weathering- of these heds^ saline efflorescences are common on 

 their surfaces. 



These lavender clays are the beds appareiitly alluded to by Flemingt 



and TheobaldJ as " cupriferous shaW'' and '' copper 

 Copper shales. 



shales/^ some stress being laid u])on their occur- 

 rence by these writers more than might have been the case if a 

 fancied analog-y had not been perhaps suspected between them and some 

 European cupriferous beds of triassic and new or old red sandstone 

 age. Dr. Fleming says the occurrence of little nodules of sulphuret of 

 copper was first made public by Captain Hollings, Deputy Commissioner 

 of Leia. The quantity, however, was insignificant ; it was quite so in a 

 commercial point of viev/ according to Mr. Theobald. The ore is said to 

 be found in grains " rarely larger than a pea" on the surface of the 

 beds, particularly after rain, when the green colour of the nodules brings 

 them prominently into view. That they cannot be very prominent 

 may be gathered from the fact that after repeated search I have failed 

 to discover them in situ, the only specimens I have seen being a few in 

 the possession of one of the Salt Customs Officers who did not know 

 exactly from whence they came. 



The colour of the whole group of sandstones is very often reddish, 

 though the sandstone beds in detail are generally 

 speckled, containing greenish or purple patclies, 

 or layers, of no great size. This redness is supposed to result partly 

 from oxidation of iron in the rock, or more mechanically from the absorp- 

 tion of water coloured by the washing of the red earthy bands. Ripple 

 marks and signs of oblique lamination may be frequently observed, as 



* The colour, texture, and whole aspect of these clays are very similar to those of 

 the lavender clay patches associated with the Khewra and Nilawan trap: they also 

 remind one of the lavender-grey portion of the lateritic clay deposits of Kachh, which 

 are also often saline.— See Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India : " On the Geology of 

 Kach," Vol. IX, pt. 1, p. 68, &c. 



t Second Report, p. 257. % As. Soc. Beng., Cit. 



( 91 ) 



