92 
liecorih of the Geoh'.yical Survey of India, 
[voL. XIll. 
It is, tlierefore, clear that tliere was a break and change of physical conditions ; t 
1st, after the deposition of the Ebsetic; 2nd, after the close of the _]Srtimmulitic| 
epoch. 
12. The Indian Feninsula during the cretaceous and tertiary ejjocli. — a. The | 
“ breaking down” in shoals of the Indian ocean must have continued for a long' 
period; at least the patches of Jurassics and later on of cretaceous beds which 
penetrated far into the northern half of the Peninsula go far to prove great < 
fluctuations during these times. The presence of remains of a marine cretaceous - 
formation in the south-east of the Peninsula and narrow strips of similar rocks 
in the Khasia hills, taken in connection with such fonnation in the Punjab, 
clearly demonstrates the existence of bays to have existed east and west of the 
Peninsula during those epochs. It was then that the enormous and long con¬ 
tinued pi’essure coming from the south and now coming from two directions, 
squeezing as it were the triangular Pcnin.sula forwards and northwards, resulted 
in the great dislocations of the Himalayan a:*ea, which were afterwards developed 
and widened. The pre.s.sure coming from both sides, east and west, I’e.snlted no 
doubt in the bow-shaped outline of the mountain ranges with its convexity near 
the centre and directed southwards, at the same time dislocating and shattering 
part of the westeim limits and thus fmming the foundation stones to the later 
formed Salt-range and neighbouring hills,—west and south-west of the present 
strike of Himalayan hill-ranges. Simultaneously with this great tension, 
igneous rocks were pushed up in the dislocations formed ; wo find such examples i 
in the Silhet Jirrassic trap, in the admixture of trappean matter in the Olive- 
shales of the Salt-range, and the similar trappean-like eretaceons shales and rocks j 
of Tibet. ; ! 
h. The tension must have continued long after the close of the cretaceous ' 
epoch and during the deposition of the tertiaries, during which time the enormous ^: 
dislocations have formed along the Southern Alps,—the west coasts of the f 
Apennine chains, and here along the greater ])art of the southern limits of the ^ 
Himalayas, and lastly along or parallel to ihe west coast (or somewhere near it), ,( 
of India,—probably the opening through which the great basaltic flows found an 
exit, Avhich, both in India and Africa, Arabia and the intervening ocean, play 
such an important part. Similar to the Mediterranean di.slocation, the Indian 
one is also still the scat of volcanic agency. J 
It is probable that during the early tertiary times the present Himalayan area 
consisted of a scries of long islands, not unlike the line.s of islands now seen in i 
the eastern Archipelago, between which the Nummulitics were deposited ; I | 
believe this feature was really owing to a partial lu’eaking down of the area. ^ 
The basaltic traps which we tlnd in the tertiaries of both side.s of the Indian i 
Himalayan axis are met wdth along the strike of the dislocations. ? 
In the following table I have endeavoured to render the comparison of rocks | 
as above demonstrated :— 
