12 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



them subsequently.] Passing the village Malshabagh (near Gandarbal), I saw a sub- 

 recent conglomerate, which was deposited fully 50 feet above the present level of the lake, 

 and in places it was overlain by terraces of clay (level), which seemed to reach about 30 

 to 50 feet higher. 



7th, Kangan. The rocks on both sides of the road are the same as about Srinagar 

 the green plutonic rock, often with zeolite cavities, and sometimes not to be distinguished 

 from greenstone. In other places it is distinctly stratified, and it is probably a meta- 

 morphic silurian or devonian rock. 



8th to 12th, Kangan to Sonamarg. [No mention of any geology on the road.] The 

 triassic limestones come almost down to the valley about three miles before reaching 

 Sonamarg. At Sonamarg they are in some parts rather slaty and thin- bedded: I got no 

 fossils in them. They dip north and south on the right and left bank of the valley re- 

 spectively. 



13th, Baltal. About four miles east of Sonamarg, schists below the limestones occupy 

 the greater heights, particularly on the north, and they extend in a north-easterly direction 

 along these heights. At Baltal all the rocks are these schists, which are probably carboni- 

 ferous. They often contain carbonaceous bands full of crystals of iron pyrites. 



14th, Mataian. [Crossing the Zoji-la, 1 11,800 feet.] The schistose beds, which are in 

 places almost mica schist, are followed, a couple of miles north of the Zoji-la, by more 

 carbonaceous beds, which are probably true carboniferous, and then, about a mile south of 

 Mataian, they are overlain on the right and left bank by the usual thin-bedded triassic 

 limestones. These are sometimes quite white and dolomitic, alternating with black and 

 earthy beds. I saw several Rhynconellce and sections of large bivalves, like Megalodon 

 and Dicerocardium, and small oysters ; but nothing sufficiently determinable. [Further exa- 

 mination of the beds near the Zoji-la has shown that there is inversion, and that the rocks 

 at the crest of the pass are of later age than the triassic limestones seen on each side. 

 Lydekker, Rec. G. S. I., XI, p. 45.] 



15th, Mataian. I looked over the limestones near the village, but found no determi- 

 nable fossils. 



16th, Drds. About three miles after we left Mataian the green rocks cut off the 

 limestone on the left bank, and for a few miles the boundary between the two rocks runs 

 in the valley. After about the seventh or eighth mile, the base of the valley is all of 

 green rock, which is generally quite massive, like greenstone ; only occasionally it is thinly 

 bedded with bacillary structure. To all appearance they are the same rocks as about 

 Srinagar. About two or three miles before reaching Dras, the green rocks cross over 

 entirely on to the right bank, and extend in a north-easterly direction, the trias limestones 

 keeping to the heights. At their contact with the green rocks the limestones are more 

 slaty. North by west of Dras the green rocks decompose very readily, and weather out 

 reddish, as greenstones often do. About the camping ground numbers of syenite rocks 

 are strewn about. The whole plain about Dras is filled with a deposit of shingle to about 

 a hundred feet above the level of the river. 



17th, Tashgaon. For some distance from Dras the rugged, barren hillsides consist 

 of greenstone. This rock gradually passes into a greenish syenite, with large quantities of 

 schorl ; but on both sides of the valley there is still the green rock in situ : higher up on 

 the left bank is syenite. 



1 La, a pass Tibetan, 



