318 Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 



rounded masses, of a pale yellow colour, translucent and brittle, and which 

 burn with a bright flame, giving out a strong aromatic odour. It is contained 

 in a dry, olive-brown earth, so light as to float in water. 



Numerous Echinodermata, and other fossils, are found on the table-land, 

 and some of the fields are thickly strewed with casts of aTurbinella of a very 

 large size, the external shell being always wanting. On breaking them, 

 small fragments of igneous matter are found in their interior. 



In the table-land just south of the outburst, is a large fissure, about a 

 quarter of a mile in length, 40 yards broad, and 40 or 50 feet deep. One 

 extremity communicates with the river, and the other is rounded, or formed 

 into a basin shape. The sides are perfectly perpendicular; and it is clearly 

 an opening in the ground, there not being the slightest indication of any- 

 thing of the kind, until directly at its brink. I was informed by a native of 

 the viflage, (the only present inhabitant,) that smoke issued from the outburst 

 about twenty-two years since ; but little dependence can be placed on the 

 statements of these people. 



Another similar, but smaller, outburst occurs about three miles south of 

 Mhurr, near the spot in which, in my account of the tertiary deposits, I men- 

 tioned that a large basaltic dyke crosses the river. The space here blown 

 out, does not exceed 100 yards in diameter, and 15 feet deep, consisting of 

 similar cones of volcanic scoriae, and comminuted particles, as above described ; 

 but there is no trace of any basalt nearer than the dyke in the river. 



From what I have now detailed, it appears, that igneous action has affected 

 all the formations of which the province is composed ; and it will also appear, 

 by the following details, that the Grand Runn, the most remarkable feature 

 of the country, owes its peculiar characters to volcanic action. 



The Grand Runn. 



With a short account of this large and singular tract, I shall conclude the 

 paper. It has been described by Captain Burnes, in a memoir in the library 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society ; and referred to, at considerable length, by Mr. 

 Lyell, in his "Principles of Geology*." 



This tract, containing an area of upwards of 7000 square miles, exclusive of 

 the space occupied by the Bunnee, and the islands of Puchum, Khureer, &c., 

 is, perhaps, unparalleled in any known part of the globe, as it may be said to 

 be placed on a level between land and water. It is dry during the greater part 



* 5th Edit., vol. ii. p. 183 et seq. 



