MEMOIRS 



THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



A Note on the Sandhills of Clifton near 

 Karachi, by R. D. OLDHAM, Superintendent, Geo- 

 logical Survey of India. (With 6 plates.) 



i.— Introductory. 



Between two and three miles from the town of Karachi, on a bluff 

 looking over the sea, lies the suburb of Clifton. Here, in the hot 

 weather, the inhabitants of Karachi find a cool and refreshing breeze 

 blowing directly off the sea, and in the evening, when the sun sets 

 behind the Manora Point and lights the quaintly shaped oyster rocks 

 with its parting rays, the sunset effects are such as I have never seen 

 surpassed and seldom equalled. 



With these attractions it was at one time expected that Clifton 

 would be the sanitarium, if not a suburb, of Karachi, and not a few 

 houses have been built there. Of late, years, however, the amenities 

 of the place have been affected by an accumulation of sand on the sea 

 face, and the growth of sandhills inland, which threaten to cut off 

 all communication between Karachi and Clifton. In the following 

 account it is proposed to give the result of observations made in 

 October and December igoi on the forms of the sandhills, as well as 

 the results of an investigation into the cause of the accumulation of 

 sand, and the source from which it is derived. 



Previous to 1895 the approach to Clifton was by what is called the 

 north approach road, that marked A. A. on the map, Plate IV. This 

 crossed the hollow immediately behind Clifton by an embankment which, 

 I am informed, was about 15 feet high. In 1895 sandhills first became 

 conspicuously noticeable on the high ground and by 1898 this north 



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