40 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



May 2nd, Shashtupa, 18 miles. For the first 6 or 7 miles the rocks are apparently 

 gneiss ; further, black slates and shales overlie the metamorphic rocks, and the hills on both 

 sides become more rounded. Immediately above the gneiss the slates look rather metamorphic, 

 but, further on, they are of the usual type, and reddish beds overlie them near the camp. 

 The clip is low to north by east. 



[The whole march nearly was over what Dr. Stoliczka terms "shingle beds," and the 

 watershed was formed by a mixture of boulders and sand. See diary. 1 ] 



May 3rd, Isligh, 18 miles. About three miles north of camp the upper reddish slates of 

 the silicious group are overlaid by darkish grey limestone, dipping to north by east. I found 

 no fossils in it. This limestone (a) is about 1,000 feet thick, and extends for about a quarter 

 of a mile. Then follows a very indistinctly stratified white or light grey limestone (/3) 9 

 which must be at least 2,000 feet thick, and extends for about one mile. I saw Crinoid stems 

 in it, but nothing else. After this follows, again, a darker grey limestone, evidently belong- 

 ing to a different series, being unconformable on the former. This series of limestones forms 

 the highest ridge, some of the rugged mountains rising to fully 20,000 feet; and the 

 thickness of the rocks must be from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The general strike is west by 

 north to east by south, and the dip to north by east, or almost north, with angles ranging 

 from 80 to 90. The thickness of this limestone series must be about 3,000 feet. The 

 whole of these limestones appear to be of palaeozoic age probably for the most part carboni- 

 ferous. 



After this follows a great series of dark shales, with beds of limestone. The shales them- 

 selves (S) are highly carbonaceous, and the limestones are earthy, mostly thin-bedded, but 

 greatly contorted, rising in more or less vertical ridges. 



May 4th, Aktdsh, 36 miles. After four miles over the plain, the road led for two mile s 

 through a narrow gorge between limestone (e), on which, further on, rest brownish, rather 

 silicious sandstone, and grey, then black, crumbling shales. The road crosses a low pass, and 

 then follows through these shales, in almost a due eastern direction, to the junction with the 

 Isligh. The whole road passes through these shales, with a little sandstone, but more of the 

 earthy limestone. The series extended north, as far as I could see, the shale hills being 

 rounded, and the limestone ridges sharp. Greenstone appears to pierce through it in the 

 distance, and the elevations of the hills appears to decrease. South of the road runs the 

 high limestone range in a west by north to east by south direction towards Aktash. The shales 

 (8) and limestones (e) appear to be triassic. Near Isligh I saw a lot of Rhynchonellce in one 

 of the earthy limestone beds, but could not extract any thing very recognisable. 



May 5th, halted at Aktdsh. Going about a mile north of camp, and then tunring in a 

 western direction up a gorge, I found myself north of the great limestone hill, and here, resting 

 on the limestone, were the dark crumbling shales, exactly like the Spiti shales in mineralogical 

 character. The shales (8) contained a few beds of the brown sandstone, but both appeared 

 entirely unfossiliferous. In the interbedded limestone (e) I found, however, a great number 

 of Rhynchonellce, which decidedly appear to be triassic, if not younger. In the more com- 

 pact limestone I could only see crinoids, no other distinguishable fossil ; not a trace of a 

 Cephalopod. In a block of more earthy grey limestone loose in the stream bed I got several 

 Rhynchonellce ; but I am not sure whether that limestone is (e) ; it seems more probably (y) 



1 It is not quite clear from the diary what Dr. Stoliczka's views were on the subject of these accumulation. He repeatedly 

 says they must have been brought down by snow, or snow and ice. He never mentions glaciers or moraines, and never notices the 

 presence or absence of striation on the rocks. 



