66G Notes on the Geology of the Punjab Salt Range. [No. 7. 



No. 7. — Above the limestone last described occurs a considerable 

 deposit of spotted sandstones and marls, about 700 feet in thickness 

 or less. This deposit is rather circumscribed, occurring only towards 

 the east end of the range. At Mt. Tilla it is seen about 100 feet 

 thick, but soon attains its maximum development at Baghanwalla, 

 after which it is soon lost to the west. The prevailing tints are red 

 and green. The sandstones are generally a full pinkish red with 

 round white spots, from a quarter of an inch to an inch or more in 

 diameter, they are of moderate hardness and much used for curry- 

 stones and similar purposes. The marls occur red and green, spotted 

 like the sandstones, and present faint marks and casts, as of annelid- 

 ous animals : no fossils, however, are found in any of the beds. A 

 curious appearance is seen in some of these beds. Many of the 

 sandstones are separated by marl partings, and from their surface 

 crystals are often seen half projecting into the marly layer. These 

 crystals are cubes, with depressed pyramids occupying the face of 

 the cube ; their usual size is a quarter of an inch, some even so 

 much as one inch, and they frequently occur marled. They consist of 

 sandstone, and the hollow faces of the crystals are only seen when 

 the marl enveloping them is removed, when they stand out in relief, 

 studding the surface of the sandstone like so many crystals of bay- 

 salt. All of the beds of this division are much ripple-marked, and 

 the sands and marls alternate pretty regularly. 



No. 8. — Beneath the upper or nummulitic limestone, and above 

 the last described sands, occur a few sandstones which are uniformly 

 developed throughout the range. The most characteristic bed is a 

 sandstone of not more than 25 feet in thickness, rather friable and 



From an early number of the Englishman of 1851, it would appear that a large 

 number of these fossils, many maunds in weight, were collected to serve as fuel for 

 the Indus steamers at Kala Bagh. The mystery how belemnites could possibly be 

 mistaken for coal might long have remained unsolved, had not the above statement 

 elicited an angry explanation in another Journal ; by which it appeared, that in the 

 orders issued for the discovery of coal, the Persian word for that mineral was mis- 

 taken for a somewhat similar one in the same language signifying "finger" and the 

 natives accordingly thought that the fingers or belemnites so plentiful on the hills 

 were the objects required, though the uses to which they would be applied by the 

 Feringhis, or the means of rendering them suitable for fuel, must ever have remained 

 a subject of profound and hopeless speculation. 



