1854.] Notes on the Geology of the Punjab Salt Range. 657 



the highest land entirely composed of tertiaries, for what mere 

 atmospheric forces could possibly denude 10,000 feet and more of 

 sands, marls and conglomerates ; and even deeply excavate the 

 underlying solid limestone — or where could such agency alone dis- 

 pose of the debris ? It may I think be legitimately allowed that 

 when the first elevatory forces were felt along the axis of the range, 

 the whole, in extended sheets constituted the bottom of an ocean. 

 The force of currents would naturally act with peculiar power on a 

 narrow and elevated ridge of soft strata, and the greatest amount of 

 denudation, possibly occurred previous to their summits emerging 

 above the surface ; when however an extended line of coast was 

 raised, the breaching power of the waves could effectually act on the 

 harder strata, and proofs of this power are every where abundant 

 through the range. The table-land often presents a series of vallies 

 excavated in the tertiaries and upper limestone, all discharging 

 themselves to the south over the escarpment or at the head of nar- 

 row gorges which enter the range, and which, in many instances, 

 seem to have been excavated backwards in the manner of the well- 

 known Niagara falls, by forces no longer existing. This series of 

 vallies is exactly imitated on a small scale by the channels cut by 

 the retiring tide in a stiff mud bank. A short description of the 

 different beds, is now all that remains to add as a glance at the 

 sections appended to this paper will give an idea of the geolo- 

 gical constitution of the range more readily than any long verbal 

 description. 



The following are the most important beds in the range with 

 their maximum estimated thickness (ascending). 

 No. 1. Bed marl and gypsum with rock salt, 1,500 



2. Dark red sandstone, fine-grained with black iron- 



sand partings, 700 



3. Dark arenaceous shales with green earth, 250 



4. Cupriferous purple shale, and red friable grits and 



conglomerates, 400 



5. Hard fawn-coloured sandstone with bands of con- 



glomerate, 700 



6. Lower or (productus) limestone, 1,100 



7. Bed and green white spotted shales and sandstones, 600 



4 it 2 



