j;> VREDENBURG : SKETCH OF BALUCHISTAN DESERT. 



of volcanic pebbles, very similar to the Ranikot beds observed near 

 M£kh-i-Rustam. No fossils were observed, but supposing this to be 

 their age, their position relatively to the flysch strata would be 

 normal. 



North of these presumably eocene beds there is a plain covered 

 with pebbles beyond which occur the olive-shales and then the great 

 limestone of the Chapar range. If the band of shales and calcareous 

 sandstones be tertiary, and the olive-shales and limestone of the 

 Chapar range cretaceous, it is evident that a thrust-plane again occurs 

 here, for the direction of dip remains unchanged in all these rocks. 



The Chapar limestone is about 300 feet thick ; it is overlaid by 

 some calcareous flags resembling the strata at Kan, and another 

 alluvial plain extends up to the small hills at the last named 

 locality. Figure 7 shows a more detailed section of these small hills. 



Some fossils were collected in the strata composing this small 

 ridge, and Dr. Noetling who kindly examined them pronounced them 

 to be upper cretaceous. The commonest form is a Cardita closely 

 allied to Cardita beaumonti ) in fact a mere variety. 



The structure of this small ridge is not everywhere so simple 

 as is shown in Fig. 7, occasionally there occur some very sharp 

 contortions. Whether or not these beds really belong to a higher 

 horizon than the Chapar strata, has already been discussed. It 

 is evident that the entire group of hills has a complex structure, and, 

 since fossils do not occur everywhere, the exact relations of all 

 the strata could only be made out by carefully mapping out each 

 outcrop ; a single traverse cannot give the key either to the strati- 

 graphy of the range nor to the age of the beds. 



Following the strike of the Siwaliks in a westerly direction 

 beyond Dalbandin, we find that the width of the 



Siwaliks and recent . 



deposits north-west and outcrop still further increases. These strata 

 do not form here those low parallel ridges so 

 characteristic of other regions, but the entire surface of the ground 

 is cut out in a succession of terraces in the manner described in a 

 previous chapter ( page 32 ). The terraces are covered with sub- 



( 60 ) 



