GEOLOGY. 13 



18th, Chiliscomo. The green rock becomes rather schistose about half-way between the 

 last camp and this, and nearly opposite Kharbu the syenite comes down to the river, and cuts 

 off the green rock : the former about here is light coloured and of the ordinary type. 



19th, Kargil. Syenite rocks seen the whole way. 



20th, Shargol. The tertiaries on the Kargil plain are much covered by diluvial conglom- 

 erate. The Pashkyumkur is built on serpentine rock ; and from this spot to near Shargol all 

 the rocks are serpentine, sometimes rather slaty and splintery, in other places much purer 

 and solid, so that it could be worked for ordinary cups, &c. All along the river the diluvial 

 conglomerate forms an almost continuous strip, particularly along the left bank of the 

 stream. 



Wherever the valley widens a little, as at Lotsun, the conglomerate is found on both 

 sides, the horizontal banks rising up to 500 or 600 feet above the stream. About a mile 

 from Shargol, grey and greenish and reddish shales come in from the hills to south-west 

 and west, and are greatly developed north of Shargol. These shales appear to belong to the 

 Sabathu group, although they look rather metamorphic in some places, but in others they 

 are more recent looking and micaceous. All about Shargol lumps of serpentine are sticking 

 out of them, and the whole are covered along the left bank of the stream with a conglomerate 

 rising to 600 and more feet above the river. Beyond this, south and south-east of Shargol, 

 the higher hills all consist of triassic limestone, alternating near the base with rather highly 

 metamorphic and sometimes strongly carbonaceous shales, which it is very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from the tertiary beds. I found no trace of fossils in the tertiaries, but the deter- 

 mination of the triassic limestone is tolerably certain. It is the same as above Dras, and 

 has often the peculiar pseudo-foraminiferous or semi-oolitic structure. 



21st, Kharbw. A good long march of 18 miles : we went by the Namika-la, and then 

 turned almost south up the stream for about four miles to Kharbu. The diluvial con- 

 glomerate extends all the way along the river, mostly developed on the left bank, until we 

 turned up the stream almost north and then north-east and east towards the Namika-la. 

 A couple of miles from Shargol the monastery is built upon triassic limestone, and there 

 are lumps and patches of it very often sticking out of the so-called tertiary shales. The 

 great figure of Buddha a little further on is also cut in a single block of triassic limestone. 

 When we left the conglomerates at the Wakha river, we turned almost north. There 

 was nothing but very soft and crumbling grey and greenish (tertiary) shales as far as 

 the Namika pass, and for some distance on the other side, extending more to north 

 about two miles east of the pass ; and the high hills to the north consisted of serpentine, 

 while south of the Namika-la was a high solitary rock of trias limestone. The diluvial 

 conglomerates were again seen in the little stream from the Namika-la, and are very highly 

 developed in the Kharbu stream. Approaching this, we had up to Kharbu, along the 

 right bank, all trias limestone, underlain by highly carbonaceous and metamorphic-looking 

 shales and slates, which are always distinctly silky and micaceous on the planes of bed- 

 ding, and often very much contorted. 



22nd, Kharbu. I went out in a north-easterly direction across the stream, and found 

 the ground composed of various kinds of shales for several miles. Eirst, the shales were 

 rather carbonaceous ; then they became more slaty, gray, greenish, and red, but all rather highly 

 metamorphic. It is clear they cannot be tertiary ; for they all lay under the trias. The top 

 of the high hills appears to consist partly of serpentine. Among the higher slates there are 

 often beds of the same green rock that I saw south of Dras. 



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