[9] Beiträge zur Geologie des Punjab. 335 



of large masses of salt since pre-cambrian times, as its stratigraphical 

 positioiv appeared to indicate, is without a parallel; and the fact that 

 other salt deposits not far off appeared to be of tertiary age, as well 

 as the abnormal characters of the salt-marl itself, have combined to 

 sjkggest that its position immediately below lower cambrian beds must 

 have been atteined by some process other than normal Sedimentation. 

 These points have been noticed by many previous workers, who feit 

 unable to offer a satisfactory explanation of the apparently anomalous 

 phenomena. Dr. Noetling reports now that there are evidences 

 of the whole sedimentary series, from cambrian to tertiary, having 

 been thrust bodiiy in a southerly direction over the salt-marl, and 

 that the latter is probably but another exposure of the tertiary salt- 

 bearing formation like that represented at Kohat. The idea thus in- 

 volves an extension of the thrustplane noticed by Mr. A. B. Wynne 

 many years ago near Kalabagh. There are many questions to answer 

 before accepting this plausible explanation of the difficulty, and it 

 is a subject of sufficient importance to merit more detailed obser- 

 vations than have been reported." 



Dies ist aber auch die einzige bisher publizierte Spur von 

 Noetlings neuerer Auffassung des obigen Problems und einige 

 andere darauf bezügliche Literaturangaben sind jedenfalls irrtümlich i). 



Weder Noetling noch Koken haben meines Wissens irgend 

 etwas Näheres hierüber veröffentlicht. 



Dagegen bemerkt Vredenburg in seinem „Summary of the 

 Geology of India* ^), und zwar auf pag. 36 folgendes : 



„In the sections of the Eastern Salt-Range, the Purple Sand- 

 stone is Seen resting on a great mass of unstratified clay, in the midst 

 of which are situated the layers of salt from which the mountain 

 ränge derives its name. But the structure of the ränge is one of 

 extensive overthrust faulting, and it is probable that the Salt-Mari is 

 not in its normal Situation with reference to the Cambrian strata, but 

 is really much newer, and Tertiary in age." 



Aber auf pag. 105 desselben Buches sagt derselbe Autor: 



„Other products of the igneous activity are the petroleum of 

 Burma, Assam and the Punjab, and in all probability the salt-marl 

 and salt deposits of the Salt-Range, as well as many deposits of 

 sulphur." 



Die Frage steht daher noch immer offen und verdient wohl wieder 

 in Angriff genommen zu werden. 



Nun glaube ich, daß wir derartige hypogene Prozesse, wie sie 

 von Middlemiss, Holland und Vredenburg angenommen werden, 

 zur Erklärung der Bildung der Salzformation trotz ihrer theoretischen 

 Möglichkeit in diesem Falle gar nicht heranzuziehen brauchen, da vor 

 allem derartige Prozesse in der Natur noch nirgends beobachtet 

 worden sind. 



') So zum Beispiel in Kaysers Geologie II. (4. Aufl.), pag. 74, Fußnote 3 

 (Koken) und in De Launay's Trait^ de Metallogenie II. (Paris et Liege 1913), 

 pag. 146, unterstes Zitat (Noetling). 



*) Ernest W. Vredenburg, A Sumraary of the Geology of India. Second 

 Edition. Calcuttta and Simla 1910. 



