4 LA TOUCHE : GEOLOGY OF WESTERN RAJPUTANA. 



In the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XL, Sir 

 Ig H. Bartle Frere gives an account of the physical 



Sir H. B. E, Frere. geography of the Runn of Cutch and its neighbour- 

 hood, in which he discusses the origin of the sandhills of the Indian 

 desert. After rejecting the theory that they are built up of blown 

 sand he ascribes them to the action of earthquakes, and compares 

 them to the Allah Bund, said to have been thrown up in the Runn by 

 the earthquake of June roth, 1819. 1 This theory was subsequently 

 discussed and refuted by Mr. W. T. Blanford in a paper read before 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 2 It should be remarked, however, that 

 Sir Bartle Frere's theory is applied to the longitudinal sand ridges along 

 the border of the Indus alluvium in southern Sind, and not to the 

 transverse sandhills of Marwar, and that Mr. Blanford confesses that 

 he does not quite understand how the former could have been formed 

 by the prevailing south-west winds. 



It is to Mr. Blanford that we are indebted for the first precise 

 ,s 7 6. information regarding the geology and physical 



W. T. Blanford. features of the Indian desert. Mr. Blanford jour- 

 neyed from Sehwan on the Indus through Umarkot and Barmer to 

 Jodhpur and returned to Rohri in Upper Sind through Jaisalmir. He 

 thus crossed the whole width of the desert in two directions. The 

 observations made by him were published in two papers, one on the 

 geology of the country, published in Vol. X of the Records of the 

 Geological Survey of India, and the other on the physical geography, 

 including notes on the fauna and flora of the desert, read before the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal on 5th July, 1876. 3 



In the former paper Mr. Blanford gives the following list of the 

 formations met with during his journey : — * 



o. Blown sand . . . . . .1 D . ™ .■ 



c, a n ■ 1 j X Post Tertiary. 



8. Alluvial deposits ) J 



1 Loc. cit., p 191. 



s Journ. As Soc. Beng., Vol. XLV, Pt. 2, p. 86. 



3 Journ. As Soc. Ben?., Vol. XLV, Pt. 2, p. 86. 



4 Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., Vol. X, Pt. 1, p. \j. 



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