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



At the western end of the plateau the nummulitie limestone beds rise 

 rapidly with the broad anticlinal wave on the Potwar side, and form the 

 summit and steeper acclivities of Sakesar mountain. Its thickness over 

 the whole plateau may average 500 feet. 



South of the east-and-west dividing ridge, and extending further 



westward than the Son country, is a wide, elevated. 



Carboniferous. . -i i • n o 



and greatly undulating tract,'^ formed chiefiy ot 



the carboniferous limestone, which has here its largest exposure. Deep 



valleys and ravines intersect this ground, all leading out upon the 



plains to the south, and all of them showing more or less perfectly the 



succession of the underlying rocks. 



In this country two new groups enter the series, and two which have 

 continued hitherto from the east disappear. The 



Triassic and Jura. 



first which dies out is the cretaceous or ^'' olive 

 group,"t then the dark shaly silurian band. Within two and a half 

 miles or so of the place where the former disappears, the triassic beds 

 begin to show themselves, and ten miles further westward, these are 

 overlaid by the commencement of the Jurassic group, the only one 

 wanting to make up the full number of the Salt Range sub-divisions 

 and formations. 



Near where the valley from Pail towards Katta opens on the plain, 



but a little to the westward, is the mouth of the 

 Nursingplioar. . ^ ■, n-, -i ■ i i • 



Nursingphoar defile, a deep cut, through which 



the stream from Sodhi escapes. Down in the bottom of this gorge, and 

 a mile or more from the mouth of it, the red salt-marl appears, but is so 

 slightly saline as not to render the water of the stream unfit for drinking. 

 The groups above the marl are seen on both sides of the glen, first the 

 " purple sandstone,^' lighter coloured at top ; then the dark shaly silu- 

 rian band, here about 80 feet in thickness, or rather more. Group 



* The " Pati^l hills." 



t Some beds doubtfully representing this group occur far to the westward at one spot, 

 on the Katwahi road to Shahpur. 

 ( 204 ) 



