278 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. [No. 3. 



sandstone is undergoing near the surface, destroys rapidly the fossils 

 which are imbedded in it, and hence, to obtain good specimens, the 

 fresh rock must be quarried. This we had neither the time nor 

 means of doing at our command, and hence were reluctantly forced 

 to be content with such specimens as we could procure from the 

 decomposing rock. 



A claw, apparently of a crustacian, was observed in the sandstone, 

 but it fell into fragments in digging it out. 



All the fossils we have noticed are characteristic of the lias and 

 the oolite ; but from the general aspect of the rocks we have described, 

 we are inclined to refer them to the latter formation. The green 

 sandstone and shales are probably analogous to the Oxford clay ; 

 but an examination of the fossils by competent palaeontologists can 

 alone decide the point. 



A formation abounding in oolitic fossils similar to those we have 

 noticed, has been described by Capt. Grant, Bombay Engineers, as 

 occurring in Cutch, and Capt. Strachey has also detected a like for- 

 mation in the Himalayas, both on their Indian and Thibet sides, In 

 the Eajmahal hills Dr. McLelland, on the slender evidence afforded 

 by the existence of a few species of fossil plants of the genera Zamia, 

 Taeniopteris and Poacites, refers " certain greyish and bluish white 

 indurated clays, rendered slaty in places by the abundance of leaves 

 of plants they contain," to the inferior oolite. 



Wo oolitic rocks appear in the Salt Eange in its eastern part. In 

 the hills South of Koofree at the West end of the Sone Sikesur 

 valley, a few shales and sandstones here and there appear under the 

 debris of nummulite limestone rocks. Their thickness gradually 

 increases in a westerly direction ; and, on the steep south-east side 

 of mount Sikesur, the oolitic strata are distinctly seen between the 

 carboniferous limestone and nummuljtic rocks. Prom mount Sike- 

 sur they may be uninterruptedly traced towards the Indus, pre? 

 serving throughout a remarkably uniform character. Prom Kalibagh 

 they stretch round into the Chichalee Eange, preserving the same 

 relations as in the Salt Eange, but are of great thickness. Excellent 

 sections of them are obtained in the Chichalee pass and in the 

 Eavines between that and Mulokhail ; about six miles below which 

 they seem to throw out and to be covered up by nummulite lime- 



