MIDDLBMISS: PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF SUB-HIMALAYA. 



that 1 examined, this held good, and was a satisfactory proof that 

 they were merely concretions, and not transported blocks. 



There are two sorts of pebble-beds, or fine conglomerates, occur- 

 ring in the sand-rock formation. None, except in the upper parts 

 where it is passing into the Siwalik conglomerate, have any pre- 

 dominating effect over much of the area covered by this memoir, 

 though an exception will be noted hereafter. Their pebbles are 

 always small and insignificant, and of a different composition to those 

 of the U. Siwalik stage. One kind consists of thin strings of white 

 quartz pebbles three-fourths of an inch long. Thin layers of irony 

 concretions sometimes accompany these pebbles, and give a dark- 

 brownish appearance to the rock. The other kind of conglomerate 

 is made up of rolled clay balls. They are often scattered sparsely 

 through a sandy matrix ; but in other places they become more 

 crowded, and make up the so-called clay- conglomerates, similar to 

 those described by Cautley in the Kdlawala Rau. These beds may 

 easily be confounded with the nodular clays which are frequently 

 interstratified with the ordinary sand-rock. The latter, however, 

 are quite distinct. The clay pebbles are brownish ochre, and some- 

 times Indian yellow coloured, and so soft as to be scratched by the 

 finger nail. Sometimes a few brown sandstone pebbles are mixed 

 with them. 



Nests and strings of lignite and coaly material, bright, shining, 

 and breaking cuboidally, are very common. They are very small, 

 though occasionally a somewhat larger tree trunk has been fossilized, 

 and given rise to unreasonable expectations of coal. Nothing resem- 

 bling a seam is known. It may be as well to state therefore, at once, 

 that there is not the slightest chance of finding workable coal in 

 these hills. 



The sand-rock formation, as a whole, is so soft that the country, 

 wherever it crops out, is in a state of rapid disintegration. The south- 

 ern portion of the Chcindi hills is a good example of this decay of 

 the hillsides, which there goes on at such a rate that the forests are 

 unable to keep sufficient hold to thrive. 



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