Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
8 
[VOL. IX. 
On the Geology of Sind. By William T. Blanford, a.e.s.m., f.r.s., Deputy Super¬ 
intendent, Geological Survey of India. 
Introduction. —It lias been for many years past an object of the last importance in 
making out the relations of the tertiary rocks of India to ex unine the geology of the pro¬ 
vince of Sind, and, but for the pressure of other work, the examination of that country would 
have been undertaken before. I was directed by the Superintendent of the Geological 
Survey on two previous occasions, in 1869 and 1871, to commence the survey of Sind, but 
other and more pressing work in each case interfered. During the working season 1874-75, 
a general examination of the province was made by my colleague, Mr. Fedden, and myself, 
the principal results of which are given in the following pages. The area of which a preli¬ 
minary survey and sketch map were made exceeds 9,000 square miles, exclusive of the alluvial 
area. The survey is still in progress, and all recent observations tend to confirm the 
classification proposed. 
A very large share of the work both in the field, and subsequently in the determination 
of the fossils, was done by Mr. Fedden, and the knowledge gained of the geology is quite as 
much due to his observations as to my own. 
The importance of a thorough geological examination of Sind is due to two circum¬ 
stances. First , it has long been known that there is in that province a fine series of tertiary 
rocks abounding in fossils. Secondly, the magnificent figures and descriptions of the Indian 
nummulitic fossils by Messrs. D’Archiac and Haime in their “ Description des Animaux 
fossiles du groupe Nummulitique de l’lnde” published in 1853, probably the most important 
single contribution to Indian Geology ever issued in Europe, lose half their value from the 
circumstance that the exact position in the series of the beds from which the different fossils 
described were obtained was unknown. The majority of the fossils had been procured in 
Sind, hut the exact localities were not recorded. 
Physical geography. —The province of Sind consists geographically of the Indus valley 
and of the hill ranges to the west of the river, from the neighbourhood of Kashmor and 
Jacobabad, or the latitude of about 28° 30', to the sea. 
The whole province is generally divided into Upper and Lower Sind. Upper Sind con¬ 
sists of a broad alluvial plain extending for mauy miles on both banks of the river, but 
interrupted near Sakhar (Sukkur) and Roliri by a range of limestone hills, isolated in the 
alluvium and running nearly north and south. These hills are intersected close to their 
northern extremity by the river which runs at this spot from north-east to south-west, and 
they extend about fifty miles south of it. Beyond the flat alluvial tract east of the river is 
au extensive region of sandy desert. To the west of the river the alluvial plain extends to 
the mountains which form the frontier of the province, and which, under the name of the 
Khirthar range,* extend from the Bohui pass to considerably south of Sehwau. Theie is 
only one break in this range, that formed bj r the Gaj river, and the gorge of the stream is 
quite impassable; everywhere else the range rises to heights varying from about 3,000 to 
over 7,000 feet. 
In Lower Sind the alluvial plain is almost confined to the left or east bank of the river, 
and between the Indus and the western frontier of the province the country is billy. On 
* In all old maps tliis and some other i*anges were united under the name of the Hala range, hut no such 
name is recognised in the province. By Vieary the term II,•ila-range was applied loosely to several distinct ranges, 
which, misled by the maps of the perio'd, he evidently supposed to be portions of the same, and the name has 
thus come to be used commonly in works referring to the Geology of Sind. The result, as regards all attempts 
to identify the original fossil localities, is most confusing. 
