52 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vox,, IT. 
Of these the two Jurassic groups appear to have been transposed by Captain Grant under 
the names of “Older and Newer Secondary.” The traps were looked upon as almost solely 
intrusive masses; their interstratifieation with aqueous beds being indicated at some places 
where association merely occurs, and at others where intrusion between stratified aqueous rocks 
takes place. 
Locality and Features. 
The province of Kutch lies upon the west coast of Hindustan, about 400 miles north-west 
of Bombay, between the sea-ports of Kurrachee and Surat, or the provinces of Kattywar 
and Sind. 
It is bordered on one side by the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Kutch, while upon all others it 
is isolated from the main land and the Thun* or little desert, by the grand and smaller 
Gunns which are connected at the eastern side of the province. Its length from east to west 
is much greater than its breadth,* and, including the Gunn, its area is estimated as being 
equal to about half that of Ireland.f 
The whole province presents numerous alternations of hilly ground and open plains, 
sandy when covered by* the detritus of the rapidly decomposing Jurassic rooks, and more 
earthy when underlaid by the Tertiary formation, both passing, towards the southern coast, 
into broad alluvial plains of ordinary Indian aspect. 
The hills are perhaps as often clusters as extended in the form of ranges, though these 
latter do occur; and more or less continuous escarpments rising with the outcrop of some of the 
stronger beds are very frequent. A broken chain passes nearly east and west through the 
Gunn islands of Putchum, Khurreer and Bela to Chorar, (in the former being flanked by a 
smaller range):—another borders the Gunn on the north side of Kutch Proper:—one, called 
the Charwar range, runs east and west to the southward of Bhooj, the capital of the province: 
and there are lesser ranges in other parts of the district, with many clusters and isolated 
hills frequently conical in form. 
The hills of the Wagur or eastern side of the district, take no definite direction. They 
are the denuded remnants of what would have been a somewhat flattened and rolling dome 
shaped mass if their strata were continuous instead of having been extensively operated 
upon by denudation. 
There are no lofty elevations in Kutch ; that, which is reputed to be the highest, namely, 
Dhenodur hill, overlooking the Gunn on the western side of the province giving a measure¬ 
ment (by Aneroid) of but 1,070 feet above the Gunn ; several others, however, have elevations 
not greatly* less.J 
Nearly all the ranges and many of the bills are steeply scarped on the north, and pass 
by gentle slopes into the plains to the south as a consequence of their structure, the beds in 
genera] having long southerly inclinations at low angles from three parallel lines of disturb¬ 
ance or dislocation which extend, 1st, from Putchum Isle to Chorar; 2nd, from Lukput, along 
the south edge of the Eunn, to Doodye towards Wagur; and 3rd, from near Eolia to the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Butehao, passing at the northern loot of the Charwar hills. North of these 
lines, and just in their vicinity, the beds are much contorted, their highest inclinations being 
always in a northerly direction. 
The trap hills, particularly those formed of intrusive traps, are frequently surrounded 
by precipices, or else sharply peaked; an irregular range, however, formed of, or capped by, 
the bedded traps, running north-west from their broadest development in the Dora hills near 
the centre of the province out through its western half, follows the usual rule presenting 
long slopes upon the dip and steep ones along the outcrop of the beds. 
The northern side of the province, generally speaking, has much diversity of form, being 
often picturesque, while, owing to the absence oi' jungle and prevalence of sand, its aspect is 
nevertheless barren; particularly when the view lies across a parched and glaring plain edged 
* According to Captain Grant the extreme length ie about 180 miles, and extreme width 60. 
t ’ Ketch Selections.’ a collection of papers by various British Officials, published by the Bombay Government, 
t Since writing the above, the height of a mountain in the Bunn island of Putchum has been taken by Aneroid 
and found to exceed by some hundreds of feet any elevation measured in Kutch Proper. Dhenodur hill is not a 
volcano—see paper by Mr. Blanford, above mentioned. 
