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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 15, p. 2.

z KARICHI DISTRICT among. barren and rocky hills, and famous for their healing qualities, as well as for the crocodiles in an adjacent enclosure. Other hot sulphur springs are to be found at Lakhi in the Kotri tdluka, which attract a number of pilgrims every year. In Karachi District the highly interesting geological series of Sind is most completely developed. It consists of upper and lower Manch- har beds of upper and middle miocene age, corresponding with the Siwdliks of Baluchistan and of'the Himalayas; and the Gaj group con- taining highly fossiliferous marine beds, whose age is lower to middle Miocene. A second series is the upper Nari or oligocene, consisting of alternating fresh-water and marine strata; and this gives way in places to the lower Nāri or upper eocene, a highly fossiliferous Nummulitic limestone, and to the upper limestone and shales of the Nummulitic Kirthar group, of middle eocene age, which corresponds with the Spintangi and Ghazij of Baluchistan. One also finds a lower limestone and shale group, likewise Nummulitic and classed as Kirthar, but not known outside of Sind, to which nearly all the Kirthar outcrops in Karachi District belong. The upper Ranikot, another highly fossili- ferous marine group, containing in its upper beds the oldest Nummulitic strata known in India, is approximately on the same horizon as the London Clay, and alternates with the lower Ranikot-fluviatile beds with lignites and fossil remains of plants. Other features of the series are representatives of the Deccan trap basalts ; the Cardita beaumonti beds, which are lowermost eocene or uppermost Cretaceous; and lastly the hippuritic limestone. All these rocks outcrop, each in turn, in a succession of gentle synclinal and anticlinal folds, whose structure recalls that of the Jura mountains. There is scarcely another part of the world that contains so complete a development of the Tertiary. The southern part of tfie District is covered by the Indus alluvium. Among fruit trees, which are not numerous, the mango, ber, apple, date, fig, plantain, and pomegranate are noticeable. The timber is almost entirely babūl ; and the timur or mangrove, found near the salt creeks, provides firewood for steamers and fodder for camels. Of maritime plants, the chcizeara and kaudel are common on the coast. The tama- risk grows in patches which are peculiarly dense in portions of the Shahbandar tiluka ; while the casuarina has been planted with some success at Karachi. ' The wild animals found in the hilly portions are the leopard, hyena, wolf, jackal, fox, ibex, antelope, and gad or wild sheep. Crocodiles are found at Magar Talao ; and they are also numerous in the pools of the Hab river, in the Indus, and in some of the large canals and mountain torrents. The climate of Karachi city and the neighbouring country, which is in every direction open to the sea-breeze, possesses a great superiority