1840.] 



On the Geology of Cuich^ 



317 



3. Red Sandstone. 



I have mentioned a red sandstone formation, which may be described 

 now. It occurs to the southward of the coal series, and is separated 

 from it by a low range of hills about six miles broad, composed partly 

 of basaltic rocks, and partly of a variety of porphyry. This sandstone 

 is regularly stratified, and has the same dip and inclination as the 

 sandstone and coal series, but differs very materially from it, in being 

 much softer, generally finer-grained, of a vast variety of colours, and by 

 containing no organic remains. Associated with the sandstone are beds 

 of clay, varying in colour from purple to deep red. One of the beds 

 is aluminous, and has been burning spontaneously for a long period. 

 The smoke issues from a deep crevice in the bank, and the fumes are 

 highly sulphureous. A stick thrust into the crevice soon ignites, and 

 the whole bank has a burnt appearance ; the red clay, which rests 

 immediately upon the stratum, having been converted into a perfect 

 brick, and the other variegated clays having been variously acted on. 

 Although this bed would yield a large per centage of sulphate of alumi- 

 na, it has never been workeil. The strata dip at an acute angle to the 

 south, and are covered, in that direction, by beds of gravel, succeeded by 

 others of sand and soil, which extend to the sea. 



4. Laminated Series or Upper Secondary Fosmatioj^. 



Alternating strata of slate-clay, limestone-slate, and occasionally slaty 

 sandstone, constitute this formation. The more calcareous beds are 

 very hard and compact, whilst some of the others are very earthy and 

 friable. In many of the calcareous slabs, the u pper and under surfaces 

 are argillaceous, hard, and compact, but the centre is a grey limestone, 

 which takes a good polish, and might be used for lithography. The slate- 

 clay is of a dark blue colour, and generally peels in thin flakes, leaving a 

 flat, lenticular nodule or centre. In many places, vast thickness 

 oftbis laminated slate-clay occur without the least admixture of the 

 sandstone-slate, whilst in others, the latter alternates very often with it. 



The beds being horizontal, except where they have beeti disturbed, 

 the formation occupies considerable tracts ; and where it rises into hills 

 it is generally capped by a thick bed either of coarse, soft sandstone, as 

 in the ghats of the Charwar range, the Bhooda hill (near Bhooj), the 

 Jarra (near the Indus), and other hills ; or of a very compact, hard, cry- 

 stalline sandstone, with a conchoidal fracture, as in the Chuppai hills, 

 the Jarra, and in other places, including the natural walls of the Runn, 

 described in a subsequent part. 



