GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 257 



range to some distance north of Dera Ghazi Khan. Here a severe 

 attack of fever compelled him to leave and return to England. 

 Besides effecting some important alterations in Mr. Griesbach's 

 -work about Quetta, one of the results of Mr. Blanford's work was to 

 show that post-eocene marine deposits of Sind do not continue north 

 to the Punjab border. It was also found that the main chain of the 

 Suliman is composed of hard whitish sandstones, apparently 

 cretaceous, overlying limestones and limestone shales, with a few 

 fossils belonging to the same system. By this important piece of 

 reconnaissance the greater portion of the gap between Sind and the 

 Punjab was bridged over. Throughout the area no beds of older 

 age than cretaceous were observed ; by far the greater portion being 

 covered with tertiary deposits, the cretaceous rocks protruding only 

 in the neighbourhood of Quetta to the westward and along the 

 Suliman range to the eastward. The efforts made to trace a con- 

 nexion between the tertiary deposits of Sind and those of the Punjab 

 by following the rocks themselves to the northward, were fairly 

 successful, and some interesting fossils, mammalian and molluscan, 

 were obtained from Lower Siwalik beds, at localities discovered by 

 Captain Vicary nearly 40 years previously in the Bugti hills. 



On the termination of his short leave in England Mr. Griesbach 

 obtained permission to visit some places on the Continent, the 

 collections made in Armenia by Staatsrath von Abich proving 

 especially interesting in their close relationship to some of the 

 Himalayan fossils. On his return Mr. Griesbach proceeded to the 

 Tibetan frontier, but the cold was so intense as to impede his 

 explorations considerably. Mr. Oldham, who accompanied the 

 Mauipur-Burma Boundary Commission, made a complete traverse 

 of the main range into the great alluvial and tertiary basin of the 

 Chindwin river. He also marched from Manipur northward into 

 the Naga hills, returning by the Assam valley, the indications 

 proving that the range is altogether a secondary one, a mere fender 

 of the great Malayan crystalline axis. 



During the year two parts of Vol. XIX. of the " Memoirs " were 

 published, the first being a description, with numerous illustrations 

 of the great Cachar earthquake of the 10th January 1869. 



The circumstances of this earthquake were observed and noted by 

 the late Dr. Oldham, superintendent of the survey, but the materials 

 were not published till 1883, when they were collated and skilfully 

 discussed by Mr. R. D. Oldham. The shock, it appears, originally 



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