Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 325 



earthquakes. Even such marked changes of level as the raising of Ullah Bund, 

 and the sinking of the ground near the large town of Luckput, would have 

 passed unrecorded but for the accidental circumstance of the district having- 

 been visited by a British officer. Other portions of this vast area, the greater 

 part of which is never traversed by man, may have been similarly affected at 

 that time, and yet the changes remain unknown. 



Successive Marine and Freshwater Beds. — The submerged tract near 

 Luckput, or Lake of Sindree, may, I think, illustrate the manner in which suc- 

 cessive marine and freshwater deposits may be produced. This tract was at 

 one period a richly cultivated district, periodically flooded by a branch of a 

 great river, and produced large quantities of rice. In this state numerous 

 land testacea no doubt occupied it, and were mixed with the remains of 

 fluviatile species brought down by the floods. The bones of animals used in 

 agriculture, and those of various domestic species, also the remains of broken 

 pottery, perhaps coins, and other proofs of civilized life, might likewise have 

 been imbedded. Suddenly, owing to the damming up of the river by the 

 Sindians, the supply of fresh water ceased, and the tract was no longer 

 cultivated or inhabited. Some time after tliis an earthquake occurred, up- 

 lifting one part and depressing below the level of the ocean another, which was 

 immediately converted into a salt lake. A perfectly new description of deposit 

 and organic remains must then have been accumulated, consisting wholly of 

 marine animals, principally such as inhabit shallows and tide-ways. Again, 

 owing to the sudden melting of the snow on far distant mountains (the Hima- 

 layahs) the waters of the river came down with such force as to burst all the 

 bunds built across it, as well as that thrown up by the earthquake, and covered 

 the tract with fresh water, or perhaps with fresh at its upper or northern ex- 

 tremity, and brackish at its southern near the sea. Supposing this state of 

 things to have remained for some time, the river continuing to pour its water 

 into this lagoon, another change would take place in the description of the 

 sedimentary deposit. Once more the bunds were erected across the river, 

 the supply of fresh water ceased, and as that on the lagoon evaporated, the sea 

 again flowed in and converted it into a salt lake, which is its present state. 

 All the above changes are known to have occurred ; and it is easy to suppose 

 that if the shallow part at Sindoo were slightly raised above its present level, 

 thus shutting out the sea, the part around the Port of Sindree would be con- 

 verted once more into dry land. If, therefore, at any future period, the river 

 should again cut a channel, the banks might present various, regular beds 

 alternately enclosing marine and freshwater exuvite, the latter being also as- 

 sociated with land productions. 



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