570 DR. J. W. EVANS ON MECHANICALLY-FORMED [Aug. I9OO, 



Prof. Blake, the distribution of the beds can be shown to be closely- 

 connected with the direction of prevalent winds in relation to the 

 configuration of the country, a good prima facie case is made out 

 for their seolian origin, which receives strong confirmation from the 

 absence of large marine organic remains, the occurrence of land- 

 shells, and the considerable admixture of arenaceous material, 

 such as might be derived from the dry sandy tracts between the 

 southern seaboard and the hills. 



The inland deposits of Kathiawar, described by Mr. Fedden as 

 occurring ' in the gorges of the hills or in patches on their sides 

 like remnants of a snow-drift,' may probably be placed in the same 

 category. They are, I believe, confined almost entirely to the west 

 of Kathiawar, where the meteorological conditions are similar to 

 those in Kach, though the rainfall may not be quite so small. 



At lias Abu Ashrin, on the Arabian coast, the foraminiferal 

 deposits seem to have been to some extent shifted and rearranged 

 by the wind, so that, at any rate, the remanie portion may be 

 considered an seolian formation. 



On the other hand, there is every reason to believe in the marine 

 origin of some of the ' miliolite ' of the Arabian coast and of the 

 islands of the Persian Gulf. The borings by marine animals, now 

 filled with calcareous material composed largely of foraminifera, 

 reported by Carter from several localities, some as much as 30 feet 

 above the sea [4] A p. 76 & B p. 609, prove that the land 

 has risen considerably in comparatively recent times. It is only 

 natural to suppose that the deposits which are found associated with 

 these borings, and contain numerous mollusca and other marine 

 organisms too heavy to be transported by the wind, must have been 

 laid down in the sea. Further, as it is unlikely that the elevation 

 was purely local, we may assume that all strata of a similar character 

 in that region, containing shells or other fossils larger than the 

 particles of the granular matrix, were formed in the same manner. 

 There is, it is true, the possibility that these beds were thrown up 

 by the waves as beaches of calcareous fragments and shells, but 

 the fossiliferous beds described by Carter at Marbat and Dofar 

 appear to be more extensive and more uniform in character than 

 we should expect in the case of raised beaches. 



The deposits which occur along the coast of Kach and Kathiawar 

 present many divergent characters corresponding to the different 

 circumstances under which they were deposited. In some places 

 the preponderance of evidence seems to favour the view that they 

 were formed in the immediate vicinity of the shore by wind-action, 

 for they alternate with arenaceous beds which appear to consist of 

 blown sand ; see [9] p. 127. Elsewhere they pass laterally into a sandy 

 deposit resembling a raised beach (oj). cit. p. 128); and are themselves 

 probably also littoral deposits accumulated by wave-action, and since 

 raised above high-water mark. Some, however, are in the same posi- 

 tion between tidal limits (see [8] p. 93) as that in which they seem 

 to have been laid down, and are probably still in course of formation. 

 Many of the beds, on the other hand, were in all probability sediments 



