Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 311 



roids of basalt, which desquamate in concentric layers, precisely resembling- 

 scales of iron. At a short distance up the river, or northward, this marl is 

 covered by a stratified series, dipping at a high angle to the north, and con- 

 sisting- of a yellowish marl, with small imbedded fragments of lignite, covered 

 by a bed of blue clay, containing also fragments of lignite and quantities o^ 

 an olive-brown earth, in which small pieces of either amber or mineral resin 

 are inclosed. Above this bed is a stratum of red sandstone; and the whole 

 is covered, at its lower extremity, by a thick bed of gravel. These inclined 

 beds reach the level of the water about 400 yards from the basaltic dyke, be- 

 yond which the marl again appears in horizontal beds. Southward of the 

 dyke, the change from the broken part to the undisturbed horizontal strata, is 

 much more abrupt, occurring within a very short distance. On the top of 

 the bank adjoining the south end of the dyke the stratified beds of blue clay, 

 &G. are horizontal. 



From the above description it appears, that the only place in which the 

 basalt is exposed, is directly under the hill, no trace of it being discernible 

 either above or below this spot; also, that the most compact and exten- 

 sive mass of basalt is exactly under the highest part of the hill ; and that 

 detached masses of igneous rock present themselves, with large portions of 

 the marl adhering to them. A series of stratified beds is also noticed rising 

 from the north towards the hill, meeting the surface at its foot, and is again 

 found in a horizontal position just south of the hill. All these facts surely 

 prove, that the hill must have been elevated by an outburst of igneous matter, 

 which was probably a branch from the basaltic hills to the eastward ; one of 

 its forks reaching within half a mile of the spot. 



Quantities, of what I believe to be frothy or foam lava, being a brownish 



black substance, very vesicular or spongiform, extremely ligiit, and somewhat 

 similar to a very porous cinder, are found adhering- to the marl, and in the 

 rubble of the bank. 



Large blocks of the shelly limestone, composing the summit of the hill, are 

 scattered about its sides and base ; and some of them, my guide informed me, 

 fell during the earthquake of 1819; and the abrupt and steep sides are, no 

 doubt, due to the action of water. Numerous fossils are found lying about, 

 characteristic of the nummulitic limestone. 



I have minutely described this hill, in the hi)pes of impressing others with 

 the same belief as myself, of the cause of its elevation. 



Near the village of Nambye, in the Charwar range, a basaltic dyke tra- 

 verses beds of thinly laminated slate-clay and layers of limestone slate. In 

 the immediate vicinity of the dyke the strata dip in all directions, and form 



