136 BLANFORD ■ GEOLOGY OP WESTERN SIND. 



and contains agates, and it has a slightly stratified appearance. Only a few feet of thick- 

 ness are seen. The sandstones resting upon it do not appear to be in any measure altered 

 by the contact. 



" Below about 20 feet of solid trap there appears on one side of the Mohan stream (in 

 which alone the igneous rock is exposed) a shaly bed, perhaps an ash. It is this which 

 tends to give the trap so markedly stratified an appearance." * * * 



" Beyond the anticlinal the variegated sands and clays continue for 1 mile or 1£ miles to 

 the west; then, just beyond the lower part of the Kot, the inner range crosses from north 

 to south, parallel with the outer ridge, and, like that, composed of Alveolina limestone 

 resting upon the sands and clays. In neither case does there appear reason to suppose the 

 existence of any fault between the limestone and the underlying beds. Yet it should be 

 noticed that, in neither case, is there any appearance of the rubbly calcareous beds so rich in 

 marine fossils which rest upon the sands and clays of the Lynyan." 



The estimate of thickness was not correct, the Khirthars were con- 

 sidered 1,000 feet thick, which is too much, whilst the Ranikot group 

 is thicker than was at first supposed. 



The plain outside Ranikot was described as composed of the Lynyan 

 (Lainyan) beds (Ranikot group), and it was supposed that these were 

 concealed and obscured by alluvial deposits of gravel, sand and pebbles. 

 So little is seen of the rocks in the country intervening between Ranikot 

 and Lainyan, that, in a rapid traverse, the mistake is not difficult to 

 account for, and just east of the fortress no section could, at that time, be 

 seen showing the relations of the Khirthar limestone to the beds under- 

 lying the plain to the eastward. This section has since been better ex- 

 posed by the river, and it has been found, from an examination of the 

 neighbouring country, that there is a synclinal east of Ranikot occupied 

 by Manchhar beds ; that the Ranikot beds of Lainyan or Leilan dip 

 beneath Khirthar limestone, and this below Manchhar sandstones, and 

 that the limestone rises again from beneath the Manchhar beds east of 

 the fortress. 



The section seen in the Sann river (as the Mohan is called outside 



the hills) , about a mile from Ranikot, consists of cliffs of light-brown 



marl passiDg down into sandy beds, precisely resembling Mauchhar rocks, 



but perhaps really consisting of reconsolidated detritus derived from 



( 136 ) 



