280 Mr Hardie on the Geology of the 



for the most part is covered either by the kunkur beds described 

 in my last, or by the cultivated soil of the valley. We have an 

 opportunity, however, of forming a tolerably correct estimate of 

 the nature and mode of occurrence of the rocks in this position, 

 by pursuing the course of the Bed us, in the channel of which 

 are exposed outcroppings of a great variety of strata. Green- 

 stones and greenstone schists are now observed alternating with 

 the argillaceous schists. The greenstones resemble those of the 

 trap formation ; they are of a dark colour, frequently almost 

 blackish, have a fine porphyritic texture, and occasionally in- 

 clude crystals of calcareous spar. They are either laminated in 

 strata, generally of considerable thickness, or, like the granites, 

 they assume the form of regular prismatic masses, alternating 

 with other stratified rocks. The greenstone schists pass insen- 

 sibly into the above ; they have a schistose texture, more or less 

 fine, and bear precisely the same relation to the greenstones that 

 the gneisses bear to the granites. 



Intimately connected with the above, and in many situations 

 occupying their place, occur a series of isomorphous rocks, 

 which may be described as greenstones which have lost their 

 hornblende. They are of a greyish colour, have a mottled or 

 rather minutely porphyritic aspect, and a basis of the nature of 

 compact felspar, through which minute grains of quartz are dis- 

 persed. The argillaceous schists with which the rocks just de- 

 scribed alternate, are similar in form and variety to the argilla- 

 ceous schists of the boundary ranges. A common kind is of a 

 bluish colour, with a rather earthy aspect, and a fine schistose 

 texture. The colour in this respect seems to depend on copper, 

 which may be detected on digesting fragments of the rock in 

 nitric acid, and afterwards plunging a rod of iron into the solu- 

 tion thus obtained. Another variety is of the nature of grey- 

 wacke schist, as commonly described ; it passes into a kind 

 having a somewhat granitoidal texture, in which mica is abun- 

 dant. I have said that the strata are now much distorted ; 

 great and sudden deviations from the usual line of bearing are 

 constantly perceived ; and from memoranda taken on the spot, 

 I observe that I have noted down a number of instances of this 

 kind, which, viewed in the aggregate, exhibit the strata as ha- 

 ving been subjected to bendings and dislocations, which have 



