Khirthar range. 89 



Indian red, buff, yellow, and olive, — with bands of sandstone, forming the 



estuarine transition beds between the Manchhar and Gaj groups. These 



beds are very well seen from the Maki to the Gaj, and on both streams, 



and they are more fossiliferous here than they usually are. On the 



Larkanda Nai the uppermost bed beneath the grey sandstone is a thin 



band of calcareous grit containing a species of Ostrea, perhaps a variety 



of 0. midticostata, and a little below is another oyster bed containing 



a larger kind. In the underlying clays are found Corbula trigonalis, 



Area larkhanaensis, two species of Turritella (one of which is a form of 



1\ angulata), a Scalaria, Buccimim cautleyi, &c. These occur in a band of 



argillaceous limestone weathering into clay. Another bed, a few feet 



lower, contains Lucina (Diplodonta) incerta, and Tellina suMonadalis. 



The beds are best seen in a small stream running into the Larkanda Nai 



from the southward. 



The section on the Gaj river is one of the best in the hills ; it is 



easy of access, the bed of the stream affording a 

 Gaj river section. 



practicable path for camels as far as the outcrop 



of the Khirthar limestone, and all the beds being finely developed. The 



Gaj beds themselves are magnificently exposed in a great cliff nearly 



1,000 feet high. The Nari beds are also well seen. The section was 



examined rather more carefully than most of the other stream beds, 



and the rocks in Kelat west of the main range were visited. 1 The 



section may be most conveniently described in descending sequence, 



commencing at the edge of the plains. The accompanying section 



(PI. IV) shows the general relations of the beds. 2 



The conglomerate, which is absent at the top of the Manchhar on 



the Salari and Maki streams, re-appears in great force on the Gaj and for 



1 These, it should he remembered, are not easy of access, as the channel of the stream 

 is impassahle, and the path over the hills is very steep and had. 



2 This section is taken a little north of the Gaj. It crosses the main Khirthar 

 range where the latter is ahout 4,000 feet high near the Kapwi pass, and ahout a mile north 

 of the river, and traverses Sur hill, the section for some distance west of the hill heing 

 oblique to the line of dip. It then passes through Chatia hill station composed of Gaj 

 beds. West of the Khirthar the distances are merely approximative. 



( 89 ) 



