4 GEOLOGY OF SIND. 



gated, succeed, and the road, about five or six miles from Bhada, 

 descends a rather steep scarp of variously coloured limestone and shale. 

 The scarp continues, not regularly but broken into hills, on the right hand 

 of the road as far as Lynyan. There it consists at the top of rubbly 

 limestone of a yellow colour, abounding in fossils, but this limestone 

 appears to be rather lower than the white alveolina-limestone which 

 forms the top of the scarp further south. 



Beneath the limestone there is first a band of calcareous sandstone 

 abounding in Ostrea Memingii, next a sandy bed, and then coarse calcar- 

 eous sandstone, with ill preserved casts of cones and other marine fossils. 

 These beds are horizontal, or nearly so. 



Below the beds of the scarp a series of sandstones and clays of 

 very various colours come in, mottled-grey, or red, often ferruginous, 

 containing gypsum in abundance in places, and in others having an 

 efilorescence of alum on the surface. These beds roll slightly at varying 

 angles, never appearing to dip at more than 5° or 6°, and generally at 

 not above 2" or 3°. No marine fossils could be found; carbonaceous 

 m.arkings and imperfect plant remains, too ill preserved for identification, 

 are not uncommon. 



Amongst these beds the lignite occurred, which was worked at 



Lynyan. It was a small patch, not extending 



above 100 yards in any direction, but 5 feet 9 



inches thick where first worked. The lignite was excessively pyritous, 



and liable to spontaneous combustion. 



Across the Vira plain but very few rocks are seen. The greater part 

 of the surface is covered with pebbles, chiefly of 

 the rocks forming the hills to the west. Rounded 

 fragments of alveolina-limestone and of silicified wood abound. 



Wherever rocks do emerge, however, they are invariably, so far as I 

 sa,w, the gypsiferous clays and sandstones, and there appears no reason 

 to doubt that these underlie the whole plain. 



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