LOFTUS TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 285 



The cream-coloured limestone, containing marks oiFuci, appears to 

 pass imperceptibly into the overlying Nummulitic Rocks (3), which 

 are, as usual, highly crystalline, and contain Nummulites and Pectens*. 



The summit of the Pass consists of this crystalline limestone, and 

 the descent eastward to the Ab-i-Bazuft is over the same beds, dip- 

 ping at an angle of 70°. On the right bank of this river, which flows 

 through a wild, confined, and deep gorge, the limestone becomes less 

 crystalline and more marly, and an inconsiderable bed contains Sharks' 

 teeth, Nummulites, Pectens, &c., similar to those at Pul-i-Tang 

 (p. 275). 



This marly bed is soon concealed by a powerful series of the gypsi- 

 ferous rocks, which rise from the Ab-i-Bazuft into high cliffs of 

 gypsum and of red and fawn-coloured earths, mingled with gravel- 

 conglomerate and breccia, in a confused mass, as if the bed had been 

 shot off the side of Merwari during its sudden elevation. Masses of 

 gravel-conglomerate lie in the bed of the stream, and high up on the 

 slopes of the mountain through which the Ab-i-Bazuft flows, f 



In this section, then, we have between the Sphserulitic limestone 

 and the Nummulitic rocks a series of blue marls and cream-coloured 

 limestones, the latter passing imperceptibly into the Nummulitic rocks. 



Unfortunately these marls and limestones are without characteristic 

 fossils, but, as I have elsewhere remarked, as soon as the Nummulitic 

 rock assumes its usual crystalline appearance, the peculiar and very 

 characteristic remains of that series show themselves in remarkable 

 abundance. If we had only this section, we should be at a loss 

 whether to consider the marls and cream-coloured limestone as be- 

 longing to the cretaceous or to the Nummulitic rocks. Fortunately 

 we have elsewhere suflicient evidence of organic remains to prove that 

 they must be undoubtedly classed as cretaceous. It is very remark- 

 able, however, that in no instance have I met with any admixture of 

 chalk and nummulitic fossils, although a gradual transition certainly 

 takes place in lithological character. 



Having shown the above regular order of superposition, I now 

 refer to sections of the blue marls and cream-coloured limestones, 

 containing chalk-fossils, as observed in other localities. 



The first locality at which undoubted chalk-fossils were discovered 

 in the cream-coloured lithographic limestone was in the plain of 

 Bishiwah. 



The south-eastern extremity of this plain, which bounds the Ban- 

 i-Zardah on the south, is a cul de sac, formed by the Nummulitic 

 limestone ranges of Zangalean and Tauk-i-Girrah on the N.E., Niiah 

 Kuh on the S.E., and Dukani Daoud on the S.W. These moun- 

 tains present precipitous faces to the plain, and have their bases so 

 much encumbered by loose rocks and debris as entirely to conceal 

 the position of the lower beds of the Nummulitic series in relation 



* Unfortunately my specimens from these localities are lost. 



t A few miles N.E. of this stream (but before reaching the left bank of the 

 Kuran at Du Pulim) I procured from a hard rock of the blue marly Hmestone a 

 gigantic species of Alveolina, 3 inches in length. 



