388 Geological Report on a portion 



Next in descending order comes the nummulitic limestone in situ ; 

 its usual colour is a very dark blue, in some places changing to a 

 grey, and in others, as at Doza Khooshtie, a pale yellow, and is then 

 arenaceous. In some localities where a deep section was exposed, I 

 remarked that the limestone became slaty in its structure, and con- 

 tained fewer of the nummulites and sometimes none. In this lower 

 portion there are fine specimens of a species of Cancer ; I have been 

 as yet unable to refer it to any described species. The dark blue 

 variety of limestone is intensely hard and sonorous, and has appa- 

 rently been exposed to considerable heat, by which the calcareous 

 matter of the shells has been volatilized, leaving nothing but casts. 

 This limestone is of great thickness, and is the rock which constitutes 

 all the higher ranges of mountains in this part of Beloochistan. 



There are four parallel ranges of mountains formed by this lime- 

 stone, running nearly east and west, the most northern of which 

 visited, viz. the "Murray range,' ' is the highest, and I imagine 

 reaches an elevation of about 3,500 feet above the sea. The rock is 

 easily identified, whenever it occurs, by the vast number of nummu- 

 lites it contains, and by its other fossils : the low rocky hills upon 

 which Roree and Sukken are situated are an outcrop of the same 

 limestone containing similar fossils, and in colour resembling the 

 pale arenaceous limestone of Doza Khooshtie. At the upheaving 

 of the limestone a number of deep clefts seem to have been formed, 

 mostly running north and south, or transverse with respect to the 

 mountain ranges : many of these do not exceed ten feet in breadth,* 

 but equal in depth the mountains in which they are formed. That 

 they were not formed by the erosive action of water is apparent, 

 because the salient points on one side (and the fracture is still sharp) 

 have their re-entering points on the other ; and in fact a convulsion 

 of nature might again close them, in which case they would dove- 

 tail and fit exactly. 



All the mountains in this part of Beloochistan exhibit the same 

 effect of great disturbance, and much of the drainage of the country 

 is at present effected through such fissures. The range to which the 

 name of ' Trukkee' is applied is the most remarkable in this respect. 

 These clefts extend even to the sandstone of the outer ranges ; but 



* The breadth of some is even less than I have stated. 



