KHIRTHAR RANGE. 95 



The Nari beds on the Gaj cannot be less than 6,000 feet in thickness; 



they occupy the river channel for more than 6 

 Nari beds. 



miles. The breadth of the river bed diminishes 



greatly, and the cliffs are higher than in the upper tertiary rocks. To- 

 wards the main range to the westward the dip gradually increases, and 

 the lower Nari beds are inclined at an angle of 35°, like the underlying 

 Khirthars. These lower Nari strata, shales, and shaly sandstones, with, 

 at the base, the yellow and brown limestone bands containing the usual 

 foraminifera, are of no great thickness. They run up the surface of the 

 main ridge of Khirthar limestone as usual. Corals are common in one 

 of the hard brown limestone beds. 



For some distance from the main range immense blocks of Khirthar 



limestone are found in the stream. Some of these 

 Limestone blocks. 



blocks are as large as houses, 20 or 30 feet, or even 



more, in diameter, and some occur 2 or 3 miles from their source. 



There appears no reason to attribute the transport of these blocks to any 



non-existent cause. The masses are too large to have been transported 



by the stream, but they have probably been carried down slopes by 



the slow processes of denudation. The blocks are found on both sides 



of the range. 



The following is doubtless a partial explanation of the occurrence of 



these blocks. North of the Gaj, and at an elevation 

 Old gravel terrace. 



of 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the stream, immense 



masses of limestone debris are found unconsolidated and sloping to the 



eastward. South of the river, a hill called Terg, standing isolated a short 



distance east of the main range, is conspicuously capped by a portion of 



a similar unconsolidated mass ; the unconformity between this and the 



Nari beds of which the hill is composed is very marked. These masses 



are evidently the remains of an ancient gravel slope, doubtless formed 



before the river had cut its channel to anything like its present depHi. 



The blocks of limestone above mentioned may have found their way 



down this slope, and thence into the stream beds below. 



The river has cut its way through the Khirthar limestone by a very 



( 95 ) 



