ALCYONAEIA OF SIND. 



9 



" It has already been mentioned that in the Laki range the Nummulitic limestone rests 

 unconformably on the Eanikot group. The Khirthar group here cannot be much more 

 than 500 or 600 feet thick, and consists entirely of limestone. To the south-east, 

 towards Kotri and Tatta, there is no unconformity between the Eanikot and Khirthar 

 groups ; but, on the contrary, there is an almost complete passage between the two, and 

 the limestone of the latter becomes much split up and intercalated with shales and 

 sandy beds. To the south-west, near the Habb river, the massive limestone dies out 

 altogether; and although it is well developed in the southernmost extremity of the 

 Khirthar range near Karchat, about 50 miles south of Sehwan, it disappears entirely 

 within a distance of 25 miles, and in the ranges on the Habb river is entirely re- 

 placed by shaly limestones, shales, and thick beds of sandstone. Some rather massive 

 beds of nummulitiferous dark-grey limestone, very different in character from the pale 

 coloured Khirthar limestone, are found west of the Habb, but their precise position in 

 the series is. not known; and the rocks appearing from beneath the Nari group, in the 

 place of the Khirthar limestone, consist of shales and sandstones, with some calcareous 

 bands abounding in Nummulites, and closely resembling, both iu character and in the 

 species of Foraminifera they contain, the Nummulitic shales beneath the massive lime- 

 stones on the Gaj river. It is not known to what extent the typical Khirthar lime- 

 stone is developed in Baluchistan ; around Kelat, to the northward, this band appears 

 to be extensively exposed ; but to the westward, near Gwadar, the rocks supposed to 

 represent the older Tertiary beds consist of an immense thickness of shales, shaly 

 sandstones, and unfossiliferous calcareous bands, resembling the lower Khirthar of the 

 Gaj and the beds of the Habb valley, and limestones with Nummulites are of 

 unfrequent and local occurrence. It is thus evident that the Khirthar limestone, 

 although it is so conspicuous in most parts of Sind, and although it attains a considerable 

 thickness, is not by any means universally distributed. 



"Paloeontology. — The most characteristic fossils of the Khirthar group ?txe Nummu- 

 lites and Alveolina ; neither the genera nor, as a rule, the species are peculiar ; butithe 

 extraordinary abundance of individuals renders it usually easy to recognize even small 

 fragments of the rock by the organisms preserved in it. The following is a list of the 

 commonest or most important fossils : — 



Gastbeopoda. 



Ovulum Murchisoni, and other species. 

 Cerithium, cf. giganteum.) 



Nerita Schmideliana. 



Lamellibbanchiata. 



Pholadomya Halaensis. 

 Corbula subexarata. 

 Cardita mutabilis. 



subcomplanata. 



Lucina gigantea. 



Brissopsis scutiformia. 

 Sowerbyi ? 



ECHINODEKMATA. 



Astarte Hyderabadensis. 

 Crassatella Sindensis. 



Halaensis. 



Vulsella legumen. 



Ostrea Tesicularis, yar. (0. globosa, /Sow.). 



Schizaster, sp. 

 Eupatagus Avellana. 



