PART 1.] 
Blanforcl: Geology of Sind. 
21 
But the lower portion of Mr. Ball’s section corresponds well with what is known of Sind. 
He found Nummulitic limestone, evidently of Khirthar age, resting upon a great group of 
alum shales and sandstone with coal, apparently representing the Eanikot beds of Sind. 
So little has as yet been ascertained definitely about the Punjab tertiary rocks, that it is 
best to defer all attempts at identifying them until more is known of their organic remains. 
With the Sub-Himalayan rocks described by Mr. Medlieott* * * § the following are possible 
identifications, but the absence of marine fossils in the two upper sub-divisions of the Sirmur 
group renders comparison difficult:— 
Sub-Himalaya near Ganges. Sind. 
Sevalik 
Nalian 
r Kasaoli ... 
... 
. . . 
f Manchhar 
? 
Sirmur . 
. < Dagshai... 
1 Sabathii ... 
... 
? 
... Khirthar. 
The most striking point is that, so far as the examination has hitherto proceeded, no 
marine representative of the Gaj Miocene group has been found north of Sind, unless the 
occurrence of a single valve of Lucina (Diplodonta) incerta in the Salt rangef be evidence 
of its existence. Mr. Medlicott notes the existence of Ostrea multicostata in the Sabathii 
group,J but it is far from clear that this species, although it is so common in the Gaj group 
as to be a characteristic fossil, is confined to that horizon even in India. In Europe it'is an 
Eocene form. Whether the Kasaoli or Dagshai beds represent the Nari group of Sind 
remains to be determined. 
Lastly, west of Sind, in Makran, there is found a thick group of marine beds of very 
late age, certainly not older than Pliocene. This group, which is greatly developed near the 
coast, I have proposed to call the Makran group.§ It rests with apparent local conformity 
on an immense thickness of sandstones and shales, in which occasionally beds of Nnmmulitic 
limestone occur. All this lower portion of the series, in the only country in which I was 
able to examine it, is greatly disturbed and altered, all the beds, as a rule, being vertical or 
nearly so, and it was impossible to classify the rocks below the Makran group. 
This Makran group is certainly unrepresented in Sind by any marine beds hitherto 
examined : (it must he borne in mind that the neighbourhood of the coast requires further 
attention:) most of the included fossils are recent species, and not a single characteristic 
Gaj (Miocene) form has been detected in Makran except Area (Parallelopipedum) tortuosa, 
which may prove undistinguishable from Area Kurrachiensis. 
The natural suggestion arises that the Makran group may represent the Manchhar 
formation of Sind : but this remains to be proved. The one formation is exclusively marine, 
the other fieshwater, and until the intervening area has been examined, it would be premature 
to speculate upon the relations of the two to each other. 
P.S. December 23 rd, 1875. Since the above sketch of Sind geology was written, 
the rocks beneath the Khirthar group have received further examination, and the result 
shows that the fossiliferous brown limestones of Tatta, Jhirk, and the country north-west of 
Kotri must be classed with the Eanikot or Infra-Nummulitic, and not with the Khirthar 
* Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, III, pt. 2, pp. 17, &c. 
t D Arch, and Haime, An. Foss. Num. de l’Inde, p. 240. 
t 1. c. p. 100. 
§ Records, Geological Survey of India, 1872, Vol. V, . 41. 
