184-6.] VICKARY ON BELOOCHISTAN. 263 



arenaceous. In some localities where a deep section was exposed, I 

 remarked that the limestone became slaty in its structure, and con- 

 tained fewer of the Nummulites and sometimes none. In this lower 

 portion there are fine specimens of a species of Cancer \ I have been as 

 yet unable to refer it to any described species. The dark blue variety 

 of limestone is intensely hard and sonorous, and has apparently been 

 exposed to considerable heat, by which the calcareous matter of the 

 shells has been volatilized, leaving nothing but casts. This limestone 

 is of great thickness, and is the rock which constitutes all the higher 

 ranges of mountains in this part of Beloochistan. 



There are four parallel ranges of mountains formed by this lime- 

 stone, running nearly east and west, the most northern of which 

 visited, viz. the "Murray range," is the highest, and I imagine 

 reaches an elevation of about 3500 feet above the sea. The rock is 

 easily identified, whenever it occurs, by the vast number of Numnm- 

 lites it contains, and by its other fossils : the low rocky hills upon 

 which Roree and Sukken are situated are an outcrop of the same 

 limestone containing similar fossils, and in colour resembling the 

 pale arenaceous limestone of Doza Khooshtie. At the upheaving 

 of the limestone a number of deep clefts seem to have been formed, 

 mostly running north and south, or transverse with respect to the 

 mountain ranges: many of these do not exceed ten feet in breadth*, 

 but equal in depth the mountains in which they are formed. That 

 they were not formed by the erosive action of water is apparent, 

 because the salient points on one side (and the fracture is still sharp) 

 have their re-entering points on the other ; and in fact a convulsion 

 of nature might again close them, in which case they would dove- 

 tail and fit exactly. 



All the mountains in this part of Beloochistan exhibit the same 

 effect of great disturbance, and much of the drainage of the coun- 

 try is at present effected through such fissures. The range to which 

 the name of 'Trukkee' is applied is the most remarkable in this re- 

 spect. These clefts extend even to the sandstone of the outer ranges ; 

 but the rock being there of a more yielding nature has suffered from 

 the action of the elements, and the clefts (or passes) are wider, 

 while the limestone usually exhibits them in their original sharp 

 escarpments. I have reason to think that this nummulitic limestone 

 extends over a very large tract of country, specimens brought from 

 the vicinity of the Tukht-i-Sulliman having been shown to me by 

 Lieut. Cunningham of the Bengal Engineers, which certainly be- 

 longed to the same formation. A similar rock is used for archi- 

 tectural purposes at Cantuel, and it takes, I was told, a tolerable 

 polish. At Num, where I first came upon this limestone, it dips at 

 about 20° south, passing in that direction beneath the conglomerate 

 and sandstone, about a mile and a half farther to the north. At the 

 pass leading to the Deyrah Valley there is a remarkable slip or fault 

 of the limestone strata, the dislocation amounting to about 300 feet. 

 The limestone at the base here dips at about 20°, that above being 



* The breadth of some is even less than I liavr stated. 



