1847.] VICARY ON THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF SINDE. 333 



would appear that they consider these nummulite limestones of Hin- 

 dostan to be the exact equivalents of the great "terrain a nummulites" 

 of the continent of Europe, which ranges from the Mediterranean 

 into Egypt. M. von Buch had, indeed, the kindness to delineate in 

 a small map (in a note addressed to me last year) the whole range of 

 these rocks from Europe across Egypt and Persia to Hindostan. This 

 " terrain a nummulites," whether connected as by some geologists 

 with the uppermost cretaceous strata, or considered as by others to 

 be of true tertiary age, is admitted by continental writers to lie between 

 the "calcaire grossier" above and the white chalk beneath it. To 

 what exact extent, however, some species of nummulites may descend 

 into unequivocal cretaceous rocks loaded with secondary fossils, does 

 not seem to be yet finally settled ; for although M. d'Orbigny con- 

 tends that no true Nummulina has been found in strata containing 

 such cretaceous fossils, several other authors have asserted the con- 

 trary*, and Professor Edward Forbes is even of opinion that in the 

 Mediterranean (^Egean) such Nummulinee occur in limestones beneath 

 the scaglia or representative of the chalk. 



To return, however, to the memoir I now communicate, I am 

 conscious that much has been already done by others in ascertaining 

 the general range of the nummulitic beds from Sinde to the northern 

 portions of the Suleeman range and along the base of the Himalaya 

 chain f, on which subject, as well as on the nummulitic salt region, 

 references may be made to Falconer, Jacquemont, Lord, Hutton, 

 Griffiths, Jameson, &c. 



On the present occasion, however, I am bound also to call special 

 attention to the efforts made by Capt. Vicary to describe in detail 

 the increment of the diurnal tidal accumulations near Kurrachee ; to 

 his patient exploration of the eastern edges of the Hala Mountains, 

 and his transverse sections of the same ; to his curious observations 

 on the linear outbursts in those tracts of hot springs in conjunction 

 with cross fractures of the ridges ; to the extraordinary accumulations 

 of travertine, and above all to his copious collections of fossil vertebrata 

 from the extensive tracts of the Hala Mountains, along which he has 

 traced bone-beds similar to those of the Sewalik Hills. I have there- 

 fore written these introductory lines concerning an absent explorer, 

 in the persuasion that his zealous endeavours and the enlightened 

 support of my former brother-officer Sir Charles Napier will be duly 

 appreciated by geologists. 



* See Sections and Descriptions of the Northern Flanks of the Eastern Alps by 

 Professor Sedgwick and Sir Roderick Murchison, Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd Ser. 

 vol. iii. p. 301, and the Terrain Hetrurien of Professor Pilla, Trans. Geol. Soc. 

 France, vol. ii. p. 163. 



f I learn from Dr. Falconer, that about eighteen months ago, Lieut. Blagrave, em- 

 ployed as a surveyor in Sinde, sent home a large collection of pleistocene, eocene 

 and nummulitic fossils. 



2 A 2 



