360 A. B. WYNNE ON THE PHYSICAL 



In the Salt Eange there is no break between the Carboniferous 

 and Triassic formations. The same sea which deposited the last 

 Carboniferous beds seems also to have uninterruptedly continued 

 the deposition of the grey gypseous shales and limestones, often 

 crowded with Oeratites, which there form the Triassic group. 

 Ceratites and Goniatites, but of different species, are prominent in 

 both. In the eastern part of the range a set of red earthy and 

 sandstone rocks, remarkable for the prevalence of pseudomorphic 

 crystals of salt as casts in the material of flaggy ripple-marked 

 layers, appears to have occupied a local or isolated depositing-area 

 of this period. 



Here again there is evidence in the western part of the range, 

 where the fossiliferous Triassic rocks occur, that the now Triassic 

 sea received shore-deposits from no very great distance. Dr. 

 "Waagen has noted a huge block-conglomerate in these beds ; and 

 the character of the adjacent land seems to have changed, it may 

 have been, from prolonged elevation ; for though crystalline rocks 

 are still found among the transported fragments, these are mostly 

 of limestone. To the east, however, the old crystalline rocks were 

 being more largely eroded ; conglomerates of their debris occur among 

 the red-salt pseudomorph beds, and in one case an abrupt mass of 

 these crystalline pebbles was observed to cross some of the flaggy 

 layers, enclosing broken fragments of the latter, as if torrents had 

 occasionally found their way into this basin and swept down river- 

 shingle mixed with harder portions of the local rocks. If this was 

 the case, the old crystalline land must have been situated somewhere 

 near the locality*. 



Jurassic. 



15. Time passed, and in the Salt-Range area the same seas 

 deposited in parallel layers a mixed and variegated series of Jurassic 

 shales, sandstones, marly limestones, golden oolite t, and occasionally 

 conglomeratic beds. These rocks indicate shallow-water conditions, 

 and ripple-marks show the frequent presence of currents. Many 

 forms of marine life existed; Belemnites and fragments of Ammonites 

 have been found, and Dr. Fleming has recorded the occurrence of 

 the bones and teeth of Saurians±. He was also of opinion that 

 some of the beds were of freshwater origin, and mentions the 

 occurrence of ferns § on two horizons, with lignite or jet, exhibiting 

 the structure of the wood of Coniferse or Cycadacese. If these beds 

 were not of actually freshwater origin, land probably was not 

 far off. 



In the eastern part of the range these Jurassic beds have not been 



* This observation was made on the turnpike road, near the top of the hill, 

 oyer the Mayo Salt-mines, Salt Range. 



t The grains coated with a shining golden ferruginous film. A similar rock 

 occurs in the Jurassic beds of Kutch, and in continental Europe. 



J Eeport on Salt Range, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 1853, vol. xxii. p. 269, &c. 



§ Probably Pecojpteris. 



