22 



SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



above the present level of the river, which has to be waded across at least once in 

 every mile. 



At the camp, Kiwaz, the hills on both sides of the valley are low, composed of a com- 

 paratively recent-looking conglomerate, which in a few places alternates with beds of reddish, 

 sandy clay, the thickness of the latter varying from 2 to 5 feet only. These rocks strik- 

 ingly resemble those of the supra-mimmulitic group, so extensively represented in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mari. They decompose very readily, covering the slopes of the mountains with 

 loose boulders and sand, under which very little of the original rock can be seen. Near the 

 camp the beds dip at about 40 to north-east, but aboitt one mile and a half further on a low 

 gap runs parallel to the strike, and on the other side of it the beds rise again, dipping with 

 a similar angle to south-west, thus forming a synclinal at the gap. Below the conglomerate 

 there crops out a grey, often semi-crystalline limestone, 1 containing in some of its thick 

 layers large numbers of Crinoicl stems, a Spirifer, very like S. striatus, and two species of 

 Fenestellce. Following the river to north by east, this carboniferous limestone again rests on 

 chloritic schist, which, after a mile or two, is overlain by red sandstone, either in horizontal 

 or very slightly inclined strata. Both these last-named rocks are very friable, easily 

 crumbling between the fingers, particularly the latter, from which the calcareous cement has 

 been almost entirely dissolved out. At Sanju the red sandstones underlie coarse grey cal- 

 careous sandstones and chloritic marls, some beds of which are nearly exclusively composed 

 of Gryphcea vesiculosa, 2 many specimens of this most characteristic middle cretaceous fossil 

 being of enormous size. The Gryphcea beds and the red sandstones are conformable to each 

 other; and although I have nowhere seen them interstratified near their contact, there is 

 strong evidence of their being both of cretaceous age. Both decompose equally easily, and 

 the Gryphcea beds have indeed in many places been entirely denuded. They have supplied 

 the greater portion of the gravel and beds of shifting sand, which stretch in a north-easterly 

 direction towards the unknown desert land. 



Sanju. 



i. Chloritic schist. J. Carboniferous limestone. 3. Red sandstone. 4, Sandstones and marls with Gryphaa -uuieuliua. S- Conglomerate with reddish clay. 



(? ternary). 



Section from Kiwaz to Sanju, distance about 2 miles. 



On the road from Sanju to Yarkand, which first passes almost due west, and after some 

 distance to north-west, we crossed extensive tracts of these gravel beds, and of low hills 

 almost entirely composed of clay and sand, though we only skirted the true desert country- 

 Locally, as, for instance, near Oi-toghrak and Bora, pale reddish sandstones crop out from 

 under the more recent deposits, but they appear to be newer than the cretaceous red sand- 

 stones, underlying the Gryphcea beds : the former most probably belong to some upper 



1 This carboniferous limestone had been previously noticed by Dr. Henderson, who gave a sketch of the section : " Lahore to 

 Yarkand," p. 107. 



- G. vesicularis in the original ; but as this is an upper cretaceous species, and the specimens resemble G. vesiculosa, I think 

 the latter is the name which Dr. Stoliczka intended to use. 



