1 854.] Notes on the Geology of the Punjab Salt Range. 665 



teeth, though brittle, are pretty perfect : one I noticed that, when 

 perfect, could not have been much uuder five inches in length : these 

 teeth are conical, black, and finely striated. This interesting bed is 

 high up in the series, and might perhaps be advantageously separated 

 from it. The other beds met with at Kotki are sandstones of the 

 character previously described, and a great deposit of thin-bedded 

 limestones. Many of these are devoid of fossils ; others again are 

 quite shell-limestones, consisting of broken aud undistinguishable 

 fragments of shells, some few having an oolitic structure. Here also 

 occurs a very curious band, some six inches thick, of oolitic limestone 

 passing into shell limestone. To the eye it appears like a brown 

 sandstone ; but when examined with a glass is found to consist of 

 an infinite number of globules less in size than those precious pills, 

 which many in these enlightened times find small difficulty in swal- 

 lowing. These globules have a lustre like burnished gold, and some 

 are finely tarnished. They are unaffected by an acid, which dis- 

 solves the calcareous cement by which they are united ; and appear 

 to be a peculiar indurated clay, though I am unable to speak con- 

 fidently regarding their composition. One curious point regarding 

 this series is the suddenness with which fossils appear in it, none of 

 any description to my knowledge being found beneath it ; yet in its 

 lower beds several species occur of Terebratula, Orthis, Productus, 

 Spirifer, &c. with several corals, bones and teeth of fish, &c. Higher 

 up encrinites abound, with chambered shells, nautili,* ceratites, &c, 

 and higher still (trans-Indus), Grryphaea, with ammonites and belem- 

 nites in abundance. f 



* Vide Dr. Fleming's Report, J. A. S. 



f As regards the existence of ceratites and orthoceratites in the same band, I am 

 in the last degree sceptical. Throughout the range or even Trans-Indus, I have 

 never seen an orthoceratite ; though that is no proof that they may not be found : 

 but some of the belemnites are so large that their chambered portion might readily, 

 under some circumstances, be taken for part of an orthoceratite. But this expla- 

 nation is unsatisfactory, as belemnites are rare (if they occur at all) in the ceratire 

 beds, and they are certainly most common in the bed previously described as high 

 in the series at Kotki, and they are rare in the range. Yet the ceratite beds are 

 also high in the series, and this view seems to me worth attention, as long as there 

 remains any doubt whether orthoceratites occur or uot. While on the subject of 

 belemnites, I may relate a curious u«>e which has been found for them in these parts. 



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