106 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. % 



clay, sand and boulders could not fail to convert the sea, which we 

 have seen was shallow, into dry land, and thus we have this overlap- 

 ping of the Upper Micoene on the edge of the Lower which is represented 

 at para. 11. The Lower Miocene was itself exposed to the denudating 

 influence of the rain, and boulders of Lower Miocene sandstone are 

 common in the Upper Miocene. 



The Upper Miocene appears to have been altogether a fresh-water 

 formation ; I mean, an accumulation of materials brought down by 

 rivers of large size, which, in all probability, wandered through the flat 

 plains of the lower Miocene, and extended in deltas and marshes and 

 creeks, just as the Ganges and the Indus are observed to do now-a- 

 days. We may fairly imagine these Miocene tracts to have resembled 

 closely a modern Indian plain traversed by large inundating rivers — 

 a thick jungle of high grass and small trees for the elephant, the 

 mastodon, the monkey, and a host of other animals to dwell in, and on 

 the sides of the large meandering rivers, wastes of sand and clay, shallow 

 pools and quicksands for the delight of the crocodiles, the tortoises and 

 the hippopotamus. On sands left dry by changes in the course of the 

 rivers, or piled up in undulating hillocks by the winds, grew thinly 

 planted trees, such as we now see in the sandy tracts of Scinde, to feed 

 and shelter the camel, the giraffe, and innumerable deer of various 

 species ; and on intermediate lands, good pasture supported the horse, 

 the ox and sivatherium. 



In the districts of Rawul Pindee, of Jlieelum, of Bunnoo, of Kohat, 

 the Upper Miocene has a thickness of more than 2,000 feet ; but 

 in the Rajaori and Poonch provinces of the Maharajah of Jummoo's 

 kingdom, the bed attains a much greater thickness. 



Any one who travels through the plains of the Punjab will 

 notice the great quantity of cows, of oxen and horses seen loose on 

 the sand near every village, and will remark at the same time, that 

 when a stream has cut through the sand and thus exposed a section, 

 not a bone is seen buried under the surface. If, however, he comes 

 to a marsh, such as the one near Guriwall, in Bunnoo, he will 

 observe that the bones will remain perfectly preserved in the 

 thick mud, saturated with hullur* which forms the bottom of the 



* Impure Sulphate of soda, with a little carbonate of soda and chloride of 

 sodium, which impregnates, more or less, nearly the whole of the soil of the Pun- 

 jab, and effloresces on the surface after rain or irrigation. 



