CHAPTER XV 



GEOLOGICAL SKETCH 



General features of Hazara — Central granite — PaUeozoic slates — Infra- 

 Triassic series— Triassic limestones — Jurassic and Cretaceous — 

 Eocene Nummulitics — Vegetation of Tertiaries — Summary of 

 geological changes — Movements of sand in a mountain stream. 



Any one who studies the rocks of Hazara must feel 

 a debt of gratitude to Mr. C. S. Middlemiss of the 

 Indian Geological Survey, to whose labours the 

 geology of the Himalaya, and especially of this 

 district, owes so much. 



I will attempt a very brief sketch of the geological 

 structure of the country, and try to indicate the various 

 changes which the hills have undergone through the 

 long lapse of time. 



A vast thickness of sedimentary rocks, upheaved 

 and rendered in part crystalline, is the main feature in 

 the geological structure of the district. It has been 

 involved in that extensive crustal movement by which 

 the whole length of the Himalaya has been uplifted 

 so recently as Tertiary times. This disturbance has 

 thrown Hazara into a series of mountain folds. From 

 north-east to south-west these folds sweep across the 

 district ; their summits are riven into peaks and domes 

 of which the highest are clothed in perpetual snow ; 

 their flanks support broad spurs and buttresses, and 

 in their valleys lie the cold silent glaciers. In the 

 extreme north alone, where this narrow strip of land 



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