314 Revieios — Geological Survey of India. 



slates, and sandstones, varying so much in lateral development that 

 the author considers it may have had separated areas of accumula- 

 tion. It is the first rock group in the ascending series found to be 

 fossiliferous and belongs entirely to the Carboniferous formation. In 

 it are represented, the author thinks probable, not alone the Krol 

 and infra-Krol groups of the Simla area, but the Carboniferous 

 Kuling series of Dr. Stoliczka's Himalayan sections to the east. 



Overlying this great Carboniferous formation come limestones, 

 dolomites, sandstones, and slates, mostly developed in the higher 

 mountains towards the interior of the Himalaya, and which are of 

 EhEetic and Triassic age, representing, perhaps, the Lilang series of 

 Stoliczka. 



In a former paper, by himself and Mr. Medlicott, to which the 

 author refers frequently, the relations between the Pir Panjal and 

 other Kashmir rocks and those forming the Outer Himalayan Tertiary 

 belt, are shown, the disturbed state of the junction being as great as 

 is usual along the Tertiary belt. From this inwards the whole of 

 the great Pir Panjal range is described as being an inverted or over- 

 thrown anticlinal arch bearing from the Kashmir valley towards the 

 outer Himalayan border hills. 



Within the valley itself the " Karewah " superficial beds, which 

 are of great thickness, and which have usually been regarded as 

 lacustrine, are referred here to a late Tertiary period, apparently 

 upon the evidence of a constant dip as high .as 20°, with which they 

 rest upon the inner flanks of the Pir Panjal range. The question 

 seems mainly to depend upon the point whether this angle of dip 

 has been produced by disturbances (forming perhaps part of the 

 movements accompanying the production of the Himalayan chain), 

 in post-Tertiary times, or whether superficial beds can be deposited 

 from water at angles so high as 20°. Evidence from organic remains 

 is not adduced. 



The trappoid rocks of this country have been thought by some 

 previous observers, notwithstanding their trappean and amygdaloidal 

 aspect, to be merely varieties of metamorphosed strata, and by others 

 to be veritable traps. The author, after numerous opportunities of 

 studying this question, favours the latter view, and regards some of 

 the denser kinds as genuine igneous rocks, an opinion borne out by 

 the microscopic examinations of Colonel McMahon. The whole of 

 these trap rocks are older than Carboniferous. 



In the absence of paleeontological testimony to produce from the 

 lower rocks of Kashmir, and until it is shown that they have been 

 traced into continuity with fossil-bearing beds in other parts of the 

 Himalayan exposures, even more caution might have been used in 

 applying the terms "Cambrian" and "Silurian" to these ancient 

 slates, gneiss, etc. 



One very interesting point is the discovery by Mr. Lydekker of 

 numerous rolled boulders of an unknown gneiss in the lower slates, 

 which rest conformably upon the gneiss of these mountains — a 

 fact indicating the previous existence of very ancient metamorphic 

 ranges, whence he thinks these blocks may very possibly have been 



