144 WYNNE : GEOLOGY OF THE SALT RANGE IN THE PUNJAB. 



is most deeply eroded along the southern side of the table-land. The 

 limestone is frequently fossiliferous, but its fossil-remains/ as usual, are 

 in bad preservation. Some beds^ however, contain numbers of a small 

 deeply marked oyster [Ostrea Flemingi?) in a much better state;' large 

 Echinoderms and Gastropods are also common. 



On the north-western side of the plateau the narrow ridge of 



Chel rises 800 feet above it, having a summit 

 Chel. 



elevation of 3,701 feet, and a length of about four 



miles. The ridge is formed by a much displaced and broken anti- 

 clinal of the magnesian sandstone group and would appear to have been 

 faulted along both sides, slightly on the south-eastern, and to a much 

 greater extent on the north-west side. (See section, fig. 18, PI. XV.) 



Along the south-eastern flank the nummulitic limestone rises gently, 



though forming ground difficult to cross in places. Close to the ridge 



a little valley intervenes, at the northern end of which, on the plateau 



side, are some bands of red, purple, and variegated, ferruginous sandstones 



passing downwards into coarse white sandstones, with red veins, and 



upwards into some black shales (doubtless the beds next below the 



limestone, on the usual horizon of the coal shales) . They are of no great 



thickness, but remarkable for containing several 



Tertiary plant leaves. i,t,ii ^ o 



well preserved lanceolate, dicotyledonous, leaves oi 



small size. 



Not far from the place where these were found, on the north-east 



prolongation of the ridge, and down its northern 



slope, is a mass of greenish brown splintery and 



gravelly shale, having a peculiar appearance, weathering like soft 



trappean amygdaloid, containing white specks, metamorphic grains, 



pebbles, and even boulders of crystalline rocks. Layers of brown sandstone 



and conglomerate occur in and with this shaly mass, which appears to 



succeed the Chel hill beds without the intervention of the salt-crystal 



group. The bedding when seen conforms to that of the nummulitic 



limestone and passes below the lowest beds of that group. 



( 144 ) 



