68 BLANFORD : GEOLOGY OF WESTERN SIND. 



There is a possibility that representatives of the Nari group overlie the 

 older Khirthar limestone. Mr. Ball's visit was hurried, and he may- 

 have overlooked some minor sub-divisions ; but it is clear that if repre- 

 sentatives of either Gaj or Nari beds occur, they are inconspicuous. 

 Indeed, there is no evidence of miocene marine beds having been traced 

 north of Sind, 1 but there is a probability that Nari beds occur in the 

 Punjab, and that they may be traced in the Suleman Range. 



Beneath the nummulitic limestone, Mr. Ball found a great thickness 

 of shales and sandstones, with some thin bands of coal. These beds do 

 not contain many fossils, but one, Ostrea flemingi, is a characteristic 

 Banikot form, and the beds are probably equivalent to the lower Khirthar 

 of Baluchistan. 



Almost throughout the Northern Punjab representatives of the 



Khirthar nummulitic limestones may be traced. 

 Tertiaries of Punjab. . . , . . v ~l _. 



They occur in the Salt Range, m the Alridi hills, 



Hazara, the neighbourhood of Murree, the outer slopes of the Pir-Panjal 



in Jamu, and near Simla, where they form the Subathu group of 



Mr. Medlicott. 2 Mr. "Wynne considers the " hill nummulitic limestones" 



found in the Himalayan ranges older than the nummulitic limestone of 



the Salt Range, but the Foraminifera of both, so far as known, are Khirthar 



species. It is impossible to say which of the various sub-divisions 



found in the Punjab tertiaries correspond with those constituting the 



tertiary series above the Khirthar group in Sind, except that it is probable 



that the Manchhar group of the latter area is represented by the Siwalik 



series comprising upper, middle, and lower (or Nahan) ; the unfossilif erous 



i A single valve of Lucina (Diplodonta) incerta is said by D'Archiac and Haime (An. 

 Fos. Num. de Tirade., p. 240) to bave been found in tbe Salt Range. Tbe species has only 

 been obtained in Gaj beds in Sind, but it may range into older rocks. Mr. Medlicott (Me- 

 moirs of tbe Geological Survey of India, vol. iii, pt. 2, p. ] 00) notes the existence of Ostrea 

 multicostata in the Subathu group; and Mr. Ball found the same fossil with 0. flemingi 

 in the lower sandstones of the Suleman range, but the species, although so common in the 

 Gaj group as to be characteristic, ranges into the Nari group, and is in Europe an eocene 

 species. 



* Mem. Geol. Surv. India, iii, pp. 17, &c. 



( 68 ) 



