File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12733766333).jpg

76 A. B. WYNNE ON SOME FEATT/BES IN THE
In this the contorted lower Miocene (Murree) beds are made to
thin out towards the south, where they are overlapped by the Sivalik
or upper rocks, these also thinning out towards the bulk of the
Murree series, which latter is shown to rest unconformably upon
porphyry, felstone, &c. In support of this section there seems to be
nothing to advance. No trace has been found of the overlap of the
two series as shown

and the rocks against which the lower group
rests are not porphyry and felstone, but limestone and shale. This
is the case from Murree westward to Kohat

and even at Oori, in
Kashmere, the Murree group was found in junction with limestones,
as already mentioned, and the latter with metamorphosed schistose
rocks

nor could the representation of the locality given in another of
the same author's sections be recognized.
19. The general features of the outer Tertiary junction with the
hill-rocks will have been gathered from the foregoing remarks

but
the difficulty remains of asserting the non-existence of unconformity
along a complex boundary, only because nothing of the kind can be
observed. On the other hand it is equally difficult to rest satisfied
from the evidence obtainable that the discordant junction marks a
limit of unconformable deposition. Reverting to the sections of this
district appended, there is nothing in them contrary to the exist-
ence of faulting

the crucial-test section of Mr. Medlicott near the
Markunda river has no parallel among our observations

and though
the unconformity which it exhibits (Report cited, p. 108) be unques-
tionable, there seems to be room left to doubt its applicability beyond
the boundary line on which it occurs, which is also that of the newest
subdivision beneath the alluvium as well as of the coarsest beds, most
palpably formed from detritus of the neighbouring rocks, among the
three groups of the Simla Tertiary series.
Nor does it appear reasonable to suppose that the basal contact of
these outer Himalayan Tertiary beds must have everywhere occurred
along a denuded cliif-line, which is a part of the supposition advanced
for the Simla area. If so, the continuous-cliff- line conditions would
in all probability have to be extended from the Simla area to the
Punjab, a distance of some 600 miles, or, for all we can tell, even to
the whole Indian frontage of the Himalaya range, or from this to the
Alps. It may fairly be asked, does any coast-line, ancient or modern,
present an unbroken cliff-line of this length, or one so little marked
by indentations ?
The circumstance that the line of abnormal contact is also a geo-
logical boundary limiting the main development of this part of the
Tertiary formation, at first sight greatly favours the idea of
unconformity. Supposing the Upper-Punjab contact, however, to
have been caused by displacement, there is nothing in this demanding
that the newer beds should continue persistently far beyond their
present general limits, or if they did even to a greater extent than
is known, the denudation of this country would have been amply
sufficient to have removed them from all prominent positions*. In

Notwithstanding this, the writer's impression must be stated that these beds
of the Tertiary formation had no widely extended range over the Outer