150 BLANFORD : GEOLOGY OP WESTERN SIND. 



portanee and covers the surface east-by-north of the station. The rock 

 contains numerous Alveolinre in parts, and passes down into the soft 

 brown argillaceous beds of the Ranikot group without any ferruginous 

 bed intervening. Towards Jhirak the brown arenaceous limestone 

 becomes further developed. 



About 3 miles south-east of Meting there is a flat-topped hill 

 capped with limestone, apparently belonging to the 



South-east of Meting. . 



Khirthar group, although the colour is dull yellow- 

 ish, not white, and some of the beds are arenaceous. This limestone 

 abounds in Alveolina, and contains some nummulites (N. biaritzensis and 

 a form resembling N. variolaria) . On the scarp of the hill a reddish 

 sandy bed is seen, and lower down are soft nodular yellow marls with two 

 kinds of Alveolina. At the base of the hill is a bed of rubbly limestone 

 full of Eurkodia calderi, Brissopsis edwardsi, Nerita affinis, and JV. schmi- 

 deliana, and below this comes a peculiar ferruginous band containing 

 gypsum. 



All round the edge of the low hills near Jhirak, brown and ochrey 



yellow limestones abounding in fossils occur, inter- 

 Rocks at Jhirak. ••/» -i • • i i mi 



stratified with gypseous shales. There are two 



principal fossiliferous beds. The lower, which is well seen on the edge 



of the alluvium near the town of Jhirak, is compact, and its outcrop is 



marked by a row of quarries, the stone procured from which is largely 



used for building and for tombstones. This bed contains numerous 



Echinoderms, chiefly Murhodia morrisi, and an Ecliinolampa s allied to 



E. subsimilis, besides some Gasteropoda. Beneath this limestone, south of 



the town, is a thin bed of salt resting on sandstone. 



The upper fossiliferous band of limestone is some 50 feet higher ; it is 



less compact, and contains Foraminifera (especially Operculina canalifera, 



Nummulites leymeriei, N. irregularis, N. ramondi, and Alveolina ovoidea), 



a few corals and Echinoderms, Lunulites and numerous Gasteropoda, 



especially Turritella, Rostellaria, Voluta, and Terebellum. The rocks 



intervening between this and the lower fossiliferous bed are shales and 



sandstones. 



( 150 ) 



