106 WYNNE : GEOLOGY OF THE SALT EANGE IN THE PUNJAB. 



in the Bakh ravine occupy an unusually high place in the series^ being 

 more nearly in the middle than at the base of the nummulitic group. 



Just beneath the coaly shales are sometimes a few beds, and some- 

 times a greater thickness of friable white or red 

 Beds below them. . 



or ohve sandstones with grey shnJes or clays 



interstratified. In some places a thick mass of dark lumpy foramini- 

 ferous limestone occupies the place of these, and frequently the base of 

 the whole formation is marked by a variegated white and red clayey 

 hsematitic band which often assumes the character of pisolitic haematite 

 or the brownish look and polished surface of earthy laterite. In the 

 eastern parts of the district the beds beneath the solid limestone are 

 sometimes over a hundred and fifty feet in thickness. 



Fossils are numerous in the group. In the lower shales and sandstones 

 plant fragments are common^ and in the dark shale 

 lanceolate and other leaves have been observed, 

 while in the light yellow lumpy limestone casts of large Gastropods, such 

 as Comos, CyprcBa, Cerithium, Stromhus and others, are frequently found; 

 very large JE^<?^^%^W^^ also occur. At higher stages than these, casts of 

 Cytherea, Astarte, or Lucina and other bivalves are often met with. 

 Nummulites are common throughout, but most prevalent in the lower beds, 

 where Orhitolites and Alveolince also occur. The assemblage of fossils, 

 though numerous enough to fix the age of the rocks and more numerous 

 than in other nummulitic beds of the north-west Punjab, is poor compared 

 ■with that of distant groups of the same age, — such, for instance, as seen 

 in Kach ; and the organisms, as a rule, are badly preserved, existing 

 chiefly as casts with little or none of the originally shelly parts remain- 

 ing. Small bullet-like concretions of iron pyrites are common in many 

 parts of the limestone. 



The coal-shales have a thickness varying from about fifty to more than 

 a hundred feet to the westward, and the whole of 



Thickness. i • 7 » , . , ,. 



this lower part 01 the group, including the coaly shales 



and associated sandstones, or limestones where well seen, may be esti- 



( lOG ) 



