304 Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 



banks and ridges, varying from 20 to 60 feet in height, are partly composed 

 of coarse, calcareous grit, full of the marine shells already enumerated, and 

 partly of a blood-red coloured clay, which has apparently been altered b}^ 

 a trap dyke. One bank exposes a section, 60 to 70 feet high, of horizontal 

 layers of gravel, clay, shelly rock, and iron clay, which in one spot appear to 

 have fallen in bodily, dipping abruptly from both sides to a point. 



Fossils. — The principal deposit of fossil shells which came under my inspection, was at the 

 village of Soomrow, just described. The specimens which I collected have been examined by 

 Mr, James Sowerby, and found to consist of 33 known genera. Of the 57 species belonging to 

 these genera, 47 are new, 6 are known, and 4 are doubtful. (PI. XXV. and XXVI.) The most 

 numerous among the univalves belong to the genera Mitra and Voluta : there are also great quan- 

 tities of the genera Cerithium and Terebra ; some of the latter being very beautifully marked 

 The genera Solarium, Conus, and Strombus also abound. Among the bivalves, the Pectens are 

 most numerous ; and among the Radiata are great numbers of Clypeaster. Most of the fossils 

 which I collected, either lay loosely on the gravelly bank, or were cemented into large tabular 

 slabs of rock. 



I was informed by the natives, that, about the year 1834, great quantities of large fossil shells, 

 called by the country people Sank or Conk, being a species of Turbinella, were found in a land- 

 crack, in a field about two miles from this spot ; and so perfect, that they were given to the 

 priests of the different temples in the neighbourhood, who, by inserting a metal tube into the 

 apex of the shell, converted them into horns, to call the devout to prayer, I could not, however, 

 find any wlien I visited the spot, the crack having been filled up by subsequent floods. 



Extent of the Tertiary Formation. — These tertiary beds reach, in one 

 place, to the town of Mhurr, a distance of thirty miles from the sea, and ex- 

 tend in a belt of, perhaps, a third of that breadth, throughout the whole south- 

 ern coast of the province. A narrow line should also be drawn along the 

 borders of the Runn, and around the islands in it, as the fossils, found on the 

 immediate shores, belong to the tertiary period. 



7. Alluvial, or Recent Deposits. 



The part coloured as alluvial in the Map (see PI. XX.) consists entirely of 

 plains covered with soil, evidently detritus which has been washed from 

 the hills, or of land recovered from the sea by the blowing up of sand. The 

 whole of the province south of the volcanic range (see Map) might be consi- 

 dered alluvial ; the surface being composed of a thick soil, formed by the 

 rapid decomposition of the basaltic or igneous hills ; but as the banks of the 

 rivers contain tertiary shells, I have thought it better to colour the district as 

 consisting of rocks of that age. The boundary between the tertiary and 



