GEOLOGY. 17 



tic beds occur ; and, in these, sections of Dicerocardium Himalayense are not uncommon. 

 In other places beds are met with full of Crinoid stems. North of the Lingzi-thung plain 

 to the west of which the hills are mostly composed of the same triassic limestone a red 

 brecciated, calcareous conglomerate is seen at the foot of the Compass-la, but this conglom- 

 erate gradually passes into the ordinary grey limestone, which forms the ridge, and un- 

 doubtedly belongs to the same group of triassic rocks. The last place where I saw the 

 triassic limestone was just before reaching the camping ground Shinglung : here it is an 

 almost white or light grey compact rock, containing very perfect sections of Megalodon 

 triqueter, the most characteristic triassic fossil. On Mr. Porsyth's route Dr. Bellew 

 met with similar triassic limestones on the northern declivities of the Sasser pass, and also 

 on the Karakoram pass, overlying the carboniferous shales and sandstones previously 

 noticed. On the Karakoram the triassic limestone contains spherical corals, very similar 

 to those which were a few years ago described by Professor Ritter von -Reuss from the 

 Hallstadt beds in the Alps, and which are here known to travellers as Karakoram stones. 1 



Returning to our Lingzi-thung route, we leave, as already mentioned, the last traces 

 of triassic limestone at Shinglung, in the Upper Karakash valley. Here the limestone rests 

 upon some shales, and then follow immediately the same chloritic rock which we noticed 

 on the Lankar-la, alternating with quartzose schists, both of which must be regarded as 

 of upper paleozoic age. 



At Kizil-jilga regular sub-metamorphic slates appear, alternating with red conglom- 

 erate and red sandstones ; and further on dark slate is the only rock to be seen the whole 

 way down the Karakash, until the river assumes a north-easterly course, some fourteen 

 miles east of the Karatagh pass. From here my route lay in a north-westerly direction 

 towards Aktagh, and the same slaty rock was met with along the whole of this route up 

 to the last-mentioned place. Dr. Bellew also traced these slates from the northern side of 

 the Karakoram to Aktdgh. They further continue northwards across the Siiget-hi, a few miles 

 north of the pass, as well as in single patches down the Suget river to its junction with the 

 Karakash. The irregular range of hills to the south of the portion of the Karakdsh river, 

 which flows almost east and west from Shah-i-dula, on its southern side entirely consists of 

 these slates, while on the northern side it is composed of a fine-grained syenite, which also forms 

 the whole of the Kuenluen range along the right bank of the Karakash river, and also is the 

 sole rock composing the hills about the camping ground at Shah-i-dula. The slates of which 

 I spoke are, on account of the close cleavage, mostly fine, crumbling, not metamorphic, and 

 must, I think, be referred to the silurian group. They correspond to the metamorphic 

 schists on the southern side of the Karakoram ranges. 



Thus we have the whole system of mountain ranges between the Indus and the borders 

 of Turkistan bounded on the north and south by syenitic rocks, including between them the 

 silurian, carboniferous, and triassic formations. 2 This fact is rather remarkable, for, south 

 of the Indus, we have nearly all the principal sedimentary formations represented, from the 

 silurian up to the eocene, and most of the beds abound in fossils. 



The only exception to which I can allude on the Changchenmo route is near Kium, in 

 the Changchenmo valley. Here there are on the left bank of the river some remarkably 



1 We are still somewhat in the dark as to the true nature of these curious fossils. Dr. Waagen considered them allied to some 

 sponges (Astylospongia) described by Professor Ferd. Ebmer from Tennessee and from the Silurian pebbles in the drift of Silesia, and 

 certainly the resemblance externally and on cut sections is very great, hut hitherto no spicules have been detected in the Karakoram 

 stones. The specimens have now been sent to Europe for identification. 



2 On his subsequent journey from Yarkand, Dr. Stoliczka found that the highest portions of the Karakoram pass consist of 

 liassic rocks (Tagling). See concluding portion of Geology, p. 45. 



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