324 



On the Geologtj of Cutch. 



[Oct. 



beds are horizontal, those forming the hill cannot be an unbroken con- 

 tinuation of those in the banks of the river. 



This formation continues a few miles further to the northward, where 

 it abuts against the nummulitic beds. 



In many places towards its northern limits, it rises into hills, and con* 

 siderable tracts of high, undulating country; the loftier portions consist- 

 ing invariably of hard, shelly rock, including large patches, of one or two 

 acres in extent, of silicified corals; and the lower parts, or intervening 

 spaces, of a loose gi'avel or clay, equally full (;f organic remains. Some 

 parts of this district, particularly that near the village of Kotra, have a 

 very remarkable appearance, as if they had been subjected to a violent 

 flood, which had washed away the surface-soil to a depth of 30 or 40 

 feet, leaving a broad, shallow valley, two or three miles across, with nu- 

 merous isolated and rounded bluff hills of gravel, scattered about its bed. 

 The banks, or bounding lines, consist of low hills, cut into innumerable 

 small ravines ; tlie whole being composed of the same shelly rock, and 

 gravel, and cla}' as above described. 



The fossil shells found in this district occur often in beds, consisting 

 of a single species. One of the hillocks, above described, is aboui 60 

 yards long by 20 broad, and 15 feet in height, and is entirely covered 

 with Ostrea callifera^ lying loosely on a gravelly soil, or cemented into a 

 solid rock. The highest part of the table-land in one place, near the 

 ■village of Kotra, is also composed solely of oysters, forming a very hard 

 rock or limestone ; other isolated banks are completely covered with 

 what appears to be a species of large Serpula, or else fragments of coral. 

 Numerous other fossils are found, either lying loose or imbedded in the 

 rot k, and consist of species of Lucina, Venus, Cardium, Pecten, Ostrea, 

 Turritelbi, and Clypeaster. The Turritellae are imperfect, but particu- 

 larly numerous. 



This flat valley or broad river-bed (for a small stream still winds 

 throuo-h it,) continues to the hills surrounding the town of Mhurr, 

 spreading, in places, into lake-basins, all of the same description as 

 above detailed ; but, a short distance south of the Mhurr hills, its course 

 is cut across by a dyke of very compact basalt, of perfectly columnar 

 structure ; each face of the polygons being about two feet in breadth. 

 This basalt forms both banks of the river for 50 or 60 yards, and to the 

 heiglit of 20 or 25 feet ; the bed of the river being also formed of sec- 

 tions of the columns. The clay through which the basalt passes is hard, 

 and of a brick red; and quantities of iron ore, of a spongiform texture, 

 are scattered about. 



