﻿1850.] 



VICARY ON THE UPPER PUNJAUB. 



43 



the dip southerly, the angle varying much at the different points 

 examined. 



Near the base of the southerly side I noticed some beds of a coarse 

 hard limestone of a reddish tint, containing an abundance of broken 

 shells, all tinged with a bright red colour : higher up the hills, which 

 are limestone, and particularly on the northern face, I noticed some 

 beds abounding in Nummulites, but I detected scarcely any other 

 fossils in my hurried visit : a Pectunculus and some Polyparia were 

 however found. 



The part of these hills visited is about a mile east of the Mur- 

 gullee Pass, and I imagine about 1500 feet above Jianee-Sung. 

 The base of the range here is little more than a mile and a half across, 

 but further to the eastward the base expands, and the mountains at- 

 tain an elevation of 2000 to 3000 feet above the country beneath. 

 I was informed also that, in the same direction, sulphur-mines have 

 been worked. 



The pliocene clays and conglomerates are again found covering the 

 northern base of these mountains and filling the depression between 

 the Murgullee hills and Hussun-Abdal. The latter place is situated 

 at the foot of some hills, attaining an elevation of 1500 feet above 

 the plain. T was unable to examine the hills, but judging from 

 what I saw, they are limestone : round their base and on the banks 

 of the river (a branch of the Aroo river) are scattered numbers of 

 water-worn boulders, many of which are granite, brought here in all 

 probability from the mountains to the eastward. The gravel of the 

 Indus, at Attock, also contains many granitic boulders, which have 

 been brought down the stream from the same direction. 



From Hussun-Abdal to Attock, about thirty-five miles, for the most 

 part over the pliocene formation ; it is much broken and cut into ra- 

 vines, some of which widen even into broad valleys, now under culti- 

 vation. At other points, where disturbing causes have not affected 

 it, elevated plains of considerable extent remain unbroken and with a 

 pretty level outline. The sections bounding these elevated plains are 

 usually abrupt, but particularly so near Boorin, the height above the 

 denudation being from 200 to 300 feet. These sections often exhibit 

 beds of travertine, which, when sand is in excess, passes into a pale, 

 soft, calcareous sandstone. A fine Pupa, now existing plentifully 

 from the Jhilum to the Khyber Pass, is found abundantly in this 

 formation along with others mentioned above. 



The Fort of Attock is situated on the northern base of a range of 

 slate mountains, to the age of which I could obtain no clue. The 

 slate beds near the foot of the hills are very dark-coloured ; higher 

 up the rock becomes paler and of a blue tint, and is easily split ; at 

 one place I noticed men at work splitting it into slabs for headstones 

 for the graves of the Moosulmauns. The pliocene formation is found 

 round the base of these hills, resting horizontally on the edges of 

 the slate. To the eastward the action of the Indus seems to have 

 destroyed it for a considerable distance inland from both banks. 



East and north-east from Attock there is an extensive alluvial 

 plain, covered at the time I passed (March) with fine crops of grain. 



