18 WYNNE: TRANS-INDUS EXTENSION OP THE PUNJAB SALT RANGE. 



for presuming that these rocks exist for some distance beneath the allu- 

 vium of the plains, and if undisturbed the production of a flat surface would 

 be probable, particularly when lying" relatively low enough to receive the 

 washings from higher ground. 



Forty miles southward of the Salt Range a group of very old rocks 

 appears from beneath these plains in the Karana hills and the Chenab 

 river (described in Dr. Fleming's second paper quoted) . If the tertiary 

 beds extend beneath the plains, even half that distance from these hills, 

 they would pass beyond the limits of the ground now, properly speaking, 

 under consideration. 



That the sea may once have covered this low ground and washed the 

 base of the ranges, even in comparatively recent times or more than once, 

 would, of course, be no proof that these extensive flats are really parts of 

 a plain of marine denudation, or that the cliffs of the ranges were once 

 sea-formed cliffs. 



In the ancient infra-carboniferous period, the accumulation of rounded 

 metamorphic boulders, as I have elsewhere noticed, 

 testifies to the existence of the shore of an early land. 

 The indications are vague, but extend for a distance of 64 miles north-east 

 to south-west, and as the boulders are not the common Himalayan detritus 

 of the country, the inference is that this old land lay within the region 

 now occupied by the plains of the Indus and the Indian desert. To follow 

 the changes which have taken place since these early times would involve 

 the consideration of a much larger area than is now referred to, and it 

 is very doubtful if the evidence available is sufficient for the purpose. 1 



Disturbance. 



Regarding the period at which the physical features of this country 

 were produced, there is evidence of disturbance having occurred more 

 than once, but the ridges themselves, as they at present exist, doubtless 



1 A highly speculative view of the subject is given in Dr. Waagen's paper upon the 

 ancient physical distribution of land and water over the Indian area. (See Records Geolo- 

 gical Survey India, Vol. XI, p. 267, 1878.) 

 ( 228 ) 



