ALCYONAEIA OF SIND. 



III. The Stratigraphical Belations of the Coralliferous Series in Sind. 



The Survey of the Province of Sind by Messrs. W. T. Blanford, F.E.S., and 

 Mr. Fedden enabled the first-mentioned of these geologists to describe the general 

 geology of the area as follovv^s*: — 



" The greater portion of Sind, including all the richer and more populous parts of 

 the province, consists of the alluvial flat of the Indus, and is a portion of the great 

 Indo-Gangetic plain of Northern India. But to the veest of the river, at a variable 

 distance, barren rocky hills arise, in Upper Sind consisting chiefly of a great north and 

 south range, knovpn as the Khirthar, which separates Sind from the Kelat territory (or 

 Baluchistan), and in Lower Sind, south of Sehwan, of several minor ranges, having a 

 general north and south direction. All these ranges, if of any height, consist chiefly of 

 Nummulitic limestone ; and the ridges in Lower Sind are for the most part anticlinal 

 rolls, higher beds occupying the intervening valleys. The Geology of the province is 

 singularly simple, faults being rare, whilst the disturbance of the rocks is just sufiicient 

 to afford good sections, without rendering the relations of the beds so complicated as to 

 be difiicult to trace. 



" Until recently the Geology was chiefly known from the researches of Captain 

 Vicary, published no less than thirty years agof ; and these researches were limited 

 to a very small province. The fossils collected by Captain Vicary and others were 

 described and elaborately figured by MM. d'Archiac and Haime:}; in 1853, the whole 

 of the marine fauna being supposed to be Eocene. It was, however, subsequently 

 shown by Professor Martin Duncan§ and by Mr. Jenkins || that there was a 

 mixture of later Tertiary forms amongst the siipposed Eocene fossils, and it was 

 noticed by Captain Vicary that above the marine beds were conglomerates and sand- 

 stones containing fossil bones. 



" Such was, in brief, the information available when the Survey was commenced ; 

 and the result of a more thorough investigation has naturally added much, without de- 

 priving the earlier information of its value. Indeed the beautiful figures of d'Archiac 

 and Haime's work have been of the greatest service in the field, by enabling us at 

 once to identify many of the fossils found. The results of the first year's work have 

 been briefly described in the Records of the Geological Survey^; but much additional 

 information has since been added, the most important being the recognition of Cre- 

 taceous beds at the base of the Tertiaries, and the confirmation of the view before 

 announced, that a thin flow of basalt, representing the Deccan traps, underlies the 

 Tertiary rocks. The beds of Sind are now classifled thus in descending order : — 



* Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, January 1878. 



t Quart. Journ. Greol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 334. 



t Description des Animaux Eossiles du groups Ifummuliti^ue de I'lnde. 



§ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xiii. p. 295. 



II Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 45. 1 Vol. is. p. 8. 



b2 



