70 BLANFOUD ! GEOLOGY OF WESTERN SIND. 



shales with Carclita beaumonti. The Deecan trap and the Ranikot beds 

 at the base o£ the eocene period follow in regular and conformable 

 succession, and the break, shown by the Khirthar limestones resting on 

 the denuded edges of the upper Ranikot beds in the Laki range, is 

 merely local, for a few miles to the south-east the two formations pass 

 completely into each other. At the top of the Khirthar limestones also, 

 although there is a sudden and abrupt change in the fauna, no uncon- 

 formity has been detected at the base of the Nari group, whilst Nari 

 beds in many places, and especially in South- Western Sind, pass uninter- 

 ruptedly into the miocene Gaj beds, and there is again a complete passage 

 from the latter into the Manchhar group. In the middle of the Manchhar 

 formation there may be a break proved by some slight indications 

 of unconformity, and by the appearance of detritus derived from middle 

 and lower tertiary beds in the upper sub-division ; but the unconformity 

 if any exist, is probably local. There is an unquestionable local break 

 in the middle of the Nari beds, but in general they form a conformable 

 sequence throughout. 



With the Manchhar beds, however, the sequence ends, and, in the 

 Great post-pliocene evidence of great disturbance having taken place 

 disturbance. { n Western Sind since the upper Manchhar beds 



were deposited, there is an abrupt and startling change from the pheno- 

 mena exhibited on the other side of the Indus valley. We are in fact 

 brought into the presence of one of the great facts which divide with 

 so trenchant a line the geology of the Indian Peninsula from that of 

 neighbouring countries. The eocene nummulitic limestone, even in the 

 middle of the Indus Valley around Sukkur and Rohri, never dips at 

 more than 5°, and rarely at more than ]° or %° ; the tertiaries of Cutch, 

 Kattywar, and Surat, pass upwards almost without a break into the 

 coast alluvium ; the laterite of Western India, probably of tertiary age 

 at least, lies undisturbed upon the flat cretaceous basalts ; and the diffi- 

 culty in drawing a line between older and newer forms of laterite 

 alone suffices to show how destitute of violent disturbance the geological 

 history of peninsular India has been in cenozoic times. It is unneces- 

 ( 70 ) 



