44. BLAXFORD : GEOLOGY OF WESTERN SIND. 



not to the <roup with which they are associated. The banded fine- 

 grained white or red and white limestone is a conspicuous and important 

 bed and is probably widely developed in Baluchistan. It was found by 



„ . , ,.. ,. , Dr. Cook at several places south and south-west 

 Red and white lime- r 



stone. f Kelat ; it occurs, as already shown, on the 



upper Gaj river west of the Khirthar range, forming- a range of hills 

 known as Parh, and a rock of precisely the same mineral character 

 appears 130 miles further south on the coast, at a small hill called 

 Gadani, about 25 miles north-west of Karachi. If, as appears probable, 

 this peculiarly fine limestone or calcareous shale (for the rock in places 

 appears argillaceous) belong to the upper portion of the cretaceous series, 

 it will serve to mark that horizon in Baluchistan and facilitate the 

 recognition of the indistinct limit between mesozoic and tertiary. There 

 is however, a great appearance of passage between all these formations. 

 Returning to the beds of the Gaj section, the gradual passage up- 



Khirtharsof Gaj sec- wards from tne snales > marls, and clays, with 

 tion. Nummulites, Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of the section, into 



the massive nummulitic limestone, is worthy of notice. A similar passage 

 takes place locally in Lower Sind, and it appears best to consider the 

 shales and marls as the lower portion of the same group as the limestone. 

 The 6,000 feet of rocks remaining between the nummulitic shales 

 and the banded limestones of supposed cretaceous age may be classed 

 as lower Khirthar ; they very possibly represent the Banikot group, but, 

 as already noticed, there is no distinct mineralogical or palseontological 

 connection. The nummulites found in No. 8 in the middle of this 

 lower Khirthar group comprise N. obtusa, N. granulosa, N. leymeriei, N. 

 spira, and other species common in the Khirthar limestone itself. 



It is probable that the beds below the Khirthar limestone extend 



throughout a large tract in Baluchistan, on the 

 l?robnT)lG sires, of lower 

 ternaries in Baluchis- west side of the Khirthar range, for similar beds 



are seen from the crest of the hills cropping out 



to the westward as far north as Dharyaro and Kutta-jo-Kabar (the 



dog's tomb), the culminating point of the range due west of Larkana. 



( 44 ) 



