Red clay zone. 

 Generally present. — Overlying the gypsum there is very generally 

 present a thick zone of deep red clay, the presence of which is often 

 indicated by the colour of the talus at the base of the nummulitic lime- 

 stone outcrops. There are, however, situations where in an exceedingly 

 broken, disturbed, and often concealed country, this red zone does not 

 always appear next above the gypsum, giving place to sundry gray 

 clays, shales, or brownish sandstones at some height in which a less 

 developed red clay band, believed to be the representative of this, occurs. 

 Where these gray clays and sandstones are absent, as is the case over 

 most of the district, the red zone, or its debris, is always to be found in 

 any consecutive section of the rocks occupying its proper place. 



It seldom shows its stratification well, but under favourable circum- 

 stances, bands of slightly different tint mark the bedding, or there are 

 alternations of more sandy nature, sometimes becoming flaggy and varie- 

 gated by green spots. 



Similarity to other red bands in the Punjab. — Where this flaggy 

 structure prevails the group so much resembles a red zone, believed to be 

 of triassic age in the Eastern Salt Range, that it has been searched for the 

 pseudomorphic crystals of salt so common there, but without success, 

 and there is no other similarity to the Salt Range band, the rocks above 

 and below which are always absent here. Some resemblance might be 

 traced between the brownish sandstone and gray clay series, in some 

 places overlying the red band here, and the olive series above the Salt 

 Range red zone, but the comparison would not hold, for the olive series 

 contains a few fossils, believed to be cretaceous, while the brownish sand- 

 stone and gray clays of this country are nummulitic. 



But there is another set of red clays in the Upper Punjab to which 

 this is also very similar. It is traceable at intervals wherever the 

 Subathu zone is found closely associated with the nummulitic lime- 

 stones. The colour is much the same, and both contain sandstone 

 or sandy alternation, differing, however, greatly in development in the 



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