Fossils from the Hindu Khoosh. 7 



colour. " Many of them," my son writes, " are green, like the 

 green specimens of rocks I sent from the Gilgit district." In my 

 account of the Blaini conglomerate at Dalhousie^ I note that 

 the white pebbles in the matrix are " of various sizes up to 

 nine inches in diameter. The rock also contains grey and blue 

 quartzite, and quartzite-sandstone pebbles, subangular to rounded, 

 which weather various colours." The matrix of the Dalhousie 

 conglomerate is a hard slaty schistose rock, whilst my son notes 

 that the Chitral rock is too tough and hard to break with a hammer. 

 He also mentions that the matrix of the Chitral rock has an igneous 

 appearance, which has its counterpart in the Blaini rock as seen 

 in eastern Sirmur, where the matrix of the conglomerate resembles 

 a volcanic ash, and the whole rock a volcanic breccia.- 



Fig. 3. — Chitral conglomerate with quartz veins. 



The circumstance noted above, that the Chitral conglomerate is 

 traversed by quartz veins, which penetrate the matrix and pebbles 

 indifferently, is one that I have often observed in the Simla area. 

 I have within the last few days received from Captain Gurdon, 

 large specimens of the Chitral conglomerate, which were obtained 

 by blasting the rock. (Fig. 3.) 



The specimens contain very numerous pebbles, varying greatly 

 in size up to o\ inches in length; they are mainly subangular, 

 but many are rounded and a few are angular. The matrix is an 

 indurated, fine-grained, slaty grit, or arenaceous mudstone. The 

 pebbles consist of limestones, slates, sandstones, and quartzites, 

 and there are some rounded white quartz pebbles, which recall 

 the ' eggs ' of the Simla rock, but are much smaller. The whole 

 rock is deeply impregnated with carbonate of lime, probably due 

 to infiltration from the adjacent limestone. 



The Blaini group has a remarkably wide extension. It has been 

 traced to Mussoori,^ and a conglomerate resembling it has been 

 observed as far east as Manipur.* In its westward extension 

 I followed it through a large part of the Chamba State,^ and it 



1 Loc. cit., p. 306. 



2 Oldham: Man. Geol. India, 2ud ed., p. 132. 



3 Man. Geol. India, 2nd ed., p. 133. 

 * Loc. cit., p. 148. 



^ Eecords G.S.I., vol. siv, p. 305 ; vol. x^dii, pp. 35, 79. 



