PAM 1.] Blanford: Geology of Sind. 9 
the east of the river there is an isolated low range of limestone hills near Hyderabad, and 
another near Tatta. The country west of the river consists partly of an undulating plain, 
partly of ranges of hills formed of limestone, and having a general north and south strike. 
The highest of these ridges are met with south and south-west of Sehwan : towards Kotri, 
Tatta and Karachi only low hills or undulating plains are found. 
Geological formations .—Within the area of Sind no rocks have as yet been detected 
containing fossils of older date than Eocene, hut the lowest rocks hitherto found in the 
province are unfossiliferous, or contain only a few vegetable remains which are not well pre¬ 
served. From Dr. Cook’s researches in Ivelat, we know that mesozoic rocks with Ammo¬ 
nites are found in that direction, and at no great distance from our frontier; whilst from 
the Kkirthar range close to the Gaj river, I saw lower beds cropping out from below the 
eocene limestone. 
The result of the researches of the past year is that the following formations, in descend¬ 
ing sequence, have been detected in Sind 
Name of group. 
Approximate age. 
Character of rocks. 
Superficial beds, alluvium, &c. ... 
Subrecent and recent 
Blown sand. Alluvium of the Indus, both of the 
river plain and the delta. Slopes and deposits 
of gravel, often consolidated. 
Manchhar or Sevalik 
Pliocene 
(a) Massive conglomerate on the edge of the 
alluvial plain; (6) clays,'sandstones, and conglo¬ 
merates, usually unfossiliferous, but some¬ 
times containing bones. 
Gaj or Sapra-nummulitie 
Miocene 
Highly fossiliferous marine limestones, clays and 
sandstones, usually in thin beds j no nummu- 
lites. 
4. Nari or Upper Nummulitic ... 
Lower miocene or upper eocene 
(a) Sandstones, very massive and of great 
thickness, sometimes variegated; nnfossilifer- 
ous, but interstrati Bed towards the base with 
( b ) yellow and brown limestones with Nmnmu - 
lites gttran&enrft, N. sublmvigatus, and Orhi- 
toides papyracea. 
3. Khirthar or Lower Nummulitic 
Eocene 
(a) Massive, white and grey limestones with 
many species of Numnulites, AUeolina* &c. 
( b ) Highly fossiliferous yellow limestone with 
Operculina canalifera, See. (local). 
(c) Green clays of Jtohri and Hyderabad. 
2. Nanikot or Infra-nummulitic 
P Lower eocene 
Shales and sandstones, in part variegated and 
richly colored, thinly bedded, containing only 
vegetable remains. 
1. Volcanic 
? 
Basalt. 
The new names proposed are all taken from well known localities in Sind. Manchhar 
is from the Manchhar Lake, on the southern and south-western banks of which the Siud 
representatives of the Sevaliks are well seen. Gaj is the name of a river which traverses 
the frontier range north-west of Sehwan, and exposes a superb section of the middle tertiary 
deposits. The name applied to the Upper Nummulitics is taken from the Nari Nai, a 
stream which drains the hills a little way south of the Gaj, and the upper course of which 
lies almost entirely amongst the formations named from it; whilst the Khirthar range, 
dividing the whole of Upper Sind from Kelat, gives its name to the great mass of Lower 
Nummulitic limestone, of which its higher ranges are entirely composed. The term pro¬ 
posed for the Infra-nummulitic group is taken from the stronghold of tho Sind Amirs in 
the range north-west of Kotri. It appears to me better in every case to apply a local 
