TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 67 
years without injury. They have been examined by the authorities at the Geo- 
logical Institute at Vienna, and found to consist of carbon 57°8, ash 6:5, water 2-1, 
and the carbonic unit is stated at 5582. This is equal to the average of Austrian 
bituminous coal, and yery much superior to the average of brown coal, There is no 
doubt of the tertiary origin of the Zsil coal. The beds containing it have, however, 
been much altered and broken, and since covered by unconformable tertiary rocks 
of newer date. Above these again is a thick gold-alluvium. 
In conclusion, the author drew attention to the fact that coal, like salt, is limited 
to no geological period, and required no high temperature either to elaborate the 
lants of which it was made, or to complete the conversion of the vegetable matter 
into coal. There is no volcanic district at all near the locality in which the Zsil 
coal occurs. There is no underclay beneath the Zsil coal, nor is there beneath the 
Liassic and Cretaceous coals, somewhat extensively worked on and near the Danube 
or in the Carpathians. These coals have therefore, in all probability, been formed 
of transported vegetable matier. The presence of a true bituminous coal of economic 
importance in a geological position h*therto limited to lignite, the author submits 
as a fact too important to pass without being placed on record, 
On the Glacier Phenomena of the Valley of the Upper Indus. 
By Capt. Gopwiy-Avsten, 24th Regiment. 
The glaciers noticed in this paper are supposed to be of greater extent than any 
yet known; they occur in that part of the great Himalayan chain which separates 
Thibet from Yarkund, in E. long. 76°, and N. lat. 35-36°, and extend over an area 
about 100 miles from east to west, from Karakorum Peak, No, 2 (28,265 ft.), to the 
Mountain of Haramosh. 
The glaciers which supply the Hushé River, which joins the Indus opposite Ka- 
peloo, were first described. Those of the upper portion of the yalley take their rise 
on the southern side of the Peak of Masherbrum, and are about 10 miles in length. 
The Great Baltoro Glacier takes its rise on the west of Gusherbrum Peak; on 
the north it is joined by a great ice-feeder which comes down from Peak No. 2; 
op osite to it, from the south, is another; both of these extend 9 or 10 miles on 
either side of the main glacier. This, from its rise to its further end, measures 30 
miles; its course is from E. to W.; the breadth of the valley along which it flows 
is 12 miles. It receives numerous tributaries along its course, some of which are 
10 miles and more in length ; two of them, on the N., lead up to the Mastakh Pass 
into Yarkund (18,000 ft.), whence a glacier descends to the N.E., about 20 miles in 
length. 
tthe Nobundi Sobundi glacier takes its rise from a broad ice-field which lies to 
the N. of lat. 36°, and has a S.E. course for 14 miles, with numerous laterals; it 
then turns S., when it bears the name of the Punmah Glacier; about 5 miles from 
the termination it is joined by a glacier from the N.W., 15 miles in length, 
The Biafo Glacier is pernape the most remarkable of any of this part of the Hima- 
layan range; it has a linear course of upwards of 40 miles; the opposite sides of 
the valley are very parallel along its who'e length, and the breadth of ice seldom 
exceeds a mile, except where the great feeders join it from the N.E. 
From the summit-level of the Biafo Gause a glacier is continued westward to 
Hisper in Nagayr, 28 to 30 miles in length. 
The Chogo, which terminates at Arundoo, takes its rise between the Mountain 
of Haramosh and the Nishik Pass; it is about 24 miles in length, with numerous 
branches from Haramosh, 8 miles in length. 
The waters from all the glaciers, from that of Baltoro in the E. to Chogo in the 
W.., are collected into the Shigar River, which joins the Indus at Skardo. 
All these glaciers carry great quantities of rock-detritus, The blocks on the 
Punmah Glacier are of great size. 
The author next described the groovings and old moraines of a former extension 
of the glaciers in this region, showing that they reached many miles beyond their 
present terminations, and rose upwards of 400 feet above their present levels. The 
paper also described the thick alluvial accumulations of the yalley of the Indus, 
particularly those of the neighbourhood of Skardo, 
5* 
