R. D, Oldham — Probable Changes of Latitude. 301 



In Kashmir Mr. Lydekker has described : a group of beds com- 

 posed of a fine-grained matrix, through which are scattered boulders 

 of crystalline rock ; these were considered to be of glacial origin, 

 and indeed it is difficult to conceive of any other satisfactory explana- 

 tion. This group, the Punjal Conglomerates, has not yet been iden- 

 tified with certainty in the Simla region of the Lower Himalayas ; 

 but there is a group of beds whose position and appearance render 

 it probable that they are of the same age. 



Above this group, which may represent the Punjal Conglomerates 

 of Kashmir, but separated from them by a considerable though 

 undetermined thickness of beds and an unconformity, comes the 

 Blaini group, 2 which is so unique in its character, and so constant 

 over a large area, that it is most important in unravelling the structure 

 of the hills. It consists of a band, seldom over 30 feet thick, of thin- 

 bedded limestone resting on a " conglomerate," the matrix being 

 usually a fine-grained slate, through which pebbles and boulders of 

 slate and quartzite are scattered. The aspect of the rock is decidedly 

 glacial, and my colleague Mr. C. S. Middlemiss has discovered a 

 pebble scratched in a manner very suggestive of ice action. 



Yet higher in the series there is the Mandhali group, which, though 

 it has so far yielded no scratched pebble, is even more conspicuously 

 glacial than the Blaini Conglomerate ; and, yet newer, there are at the 

 base of a quartzite series, provisionally known as the Bawars, some 

 beds originally composed of fine sand, through which rounded frag- 

 ments of quartzite sometimes over a foot in diameter are scattered ; 

 these beds are associated with a very coarse-grained arkose, itself 

 indicative of a more severe climate than now prevails in these lati- 

 tudes, even at an altitude of 15,000 feet. These last two groups have 

 not yet been proved to be distinct ; but there is no reason for doubting 

 their distinctness, or suspecting their identity. 



All these beds are conspicuously of subaqueous origin, and if we 

 except the Bawar beds — which have so far been identified in one 

 locality only — too widespread in their distribution and too constant 

 in their characters to render it probable that they are of other than 

 marine origin. There are, besides, very good reasons, which it is 

 needless to enter on here, for supposing that all the sedimentary 

 beds of the Lower Himalayas are of marine origin. 



In the Lower Himalayas no pre-Tertiary glacial beds of later date 

 than the Bawars have yet been determined ; but in Ladak Mr. 

 Lydekker has described a group of beds which he considers of glacial 

 origin, as conformably underlying the Nummulitics. 3 



Leaving the Himalayas, we find in the Salt Range proofs of glacial 

 action at more than one horizon. The newest of these is in the 

 " Olive group," which was originally described as Cretaceous, and 

 lately, on the strength of some Conularice, identical with species 

 found in Australia, which were supposed to be derived from con- 



1 Memoirs Geological Survey of India, vol. xxii. p. 247. 



2 First described by Mr. H. B. Medlicott, Memoirs Geological Survey of India, 

 vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 30. 



3 Memoirs Geological Survey of India, vol. xxii. p. 104. 



