36 



SECOND YAEKAND MISSION. 



titic beds. These older beds very much resemble those we saw about Chakmak, 1 which also 

 may turn out to be the same we saw north of Tarn. 2 The sides of the hills are more or less 

 thickly covered with loess dust, which much obscured the bedding of the rocks. I found 

 no fossils. 



Among the river boulders I noticed boulders of the red sandstone we saw south of Sanju, 

 and a greenish syenitic rock. 



Sasak Taka. 



Mlala. 



1. Clay, loo feet above the plain. 



3. Gravel and loess. 



3. Slates and sandstones, occasionally conglomeratic. 



4. Earthy limestone. 



5. Sandstone and conglomerate. 



6. Greenstone. 



Section from Sdsak Taka lo Ighiz Jar. 



March 2Brd, Sdsak Taka, 13| miles. The dark slates, shales, and sandstone continued for 

 a couple of miles, then followed greenish chloritic and f elspathic rocks, very much like those 

 south of Sanju, but more massive, being in fact a form of greenstone. These cap the whole 

 series, and in one or two places come down to the bed of the river. Next follow earthy 

 limestones, whitish or dark in colour, without any fossils, and then shales, carbonaceous 

 slates, &c., with occasional conglomeratic beds and coarse sandstones. The whole of this 

 series appears to be the same we saw on the road from Tarn to Sanju. Some of the strata 

 very highly carbonaceous, but not a trace of a fossil anywhere, 



March 24th, Kaskasu. Fourteen miles up the river Kaskasu. Nothing but the same 

 carbonaceous slates and shales which are probably palaeozoic, or occasional beds of grey more or 

 less coarse sandstone, or even conglomerate. Not a trace of a fossil anywhere. The beds are 

 mostly much disturbed and contorted, but where traces of regularity occur, they are seen 

 dipping to south-west at an angle of about 50. About half-way the old rocks were overlain 

 by an old alluvial deposit, mostly consisting of boulders of the red sandstone, somewhat 

 sparingly intermixed with boulders of gneiss. I have, however, not seen anywhere in situ the 

 red sandstone ; the greater portion seems to have come from a valley leading into the Kas- 

 kasu from the west about 4 miles east of our camp at Kaskasu. In several of the 

 streams coming from the north, pebbles of white clolomitic limestone are seen containing a 

 fossil like Bellerophon. These are probably from the white limestone, which is seen further 

 on from the pass, and which is probably carboniferous. There were also blocks of a black 

 earthy limestone, full of crinoid stems ; this last is probably Silurian and interbedded with 

 the black slates. A very similar limestone was seen on the road, but it contained no crinoids. 



March 25th, Chehil Gombdz. A short march of 11 miles across the Kaskasu pass. The 

 bed of the Kaskasu river was strewn with boulders of gneiss, which must have come from 

 the head of the stream. East of the pass the rocks are the same as before ; palaeozoic slates, 

 sandstones, and conglomerates striking north and south, nearly vertical, much contorted, but 

 sometimes dipping to the westward. On the pass the beds apparently dip north-east, but the 

 strike is very indistinct, the surface being covered with fine clay, partly derived from the 



1 North-north-west of Kashghar, p. 26. 



5 Near the Sanju pass, south . of Yarkand, p. 21.' 



