BELOW THE TKIAS. ' 



2. Below the Tel4S. — This group affords the mixed assemblage 

 of rocks which, have received the names " Corneaiij" " Volcanic/' Sic, &c., 

 from Dr. Verchere. It rests with total unconformity upon the slates, 

 the basal rock being, in places, a red argillaceous breccia full of large 

 fragments from the underlying beds. 



The group presents two principal divisions, the lower one consisting 

 chiefly of red sandstones, red shales, and red quartzitic dolomites, the 

 upper one composed of dolomites only, of lighter colour, often highly 

 silicious, and of very considerable thickness. 



A third group, composed of hsematitie rocks, quartz breccias, sand- 

 stones and shales, may belong either to this or to the succeeding group, 

 and has been included in this division mainly on account of its marked 

 difference from the limestone series above. 



The red sandstones and shales have a very characteristic aspect, and 

 remind the observer strongly of the dull red sandstones far below the 

 carboniferous formation, and immediately overlying the bright scarlet 

 saline marl of the salt range : there, however, the associated quartzose 

 dolomites are absent, and the analogy ceases. 



There is no portion of the Spiti series, according to Dr. Stoliczka, 

 which would bear comparison with the red sandstones of Sirban. 



These beds possess also a strong resemblance to the 'Werfener 

 Schichten' or the ' Bunter Sandstein' of the Alps, but it would be 

 more than hazardous to attempt to relegate them to that distant 

 formation. 



The upper division of the beds ''Below the trias'-the dolomites- 

 are certainly, from their clearly observed superposition, newer than the 

 red sandstones^ &c. Fossils have not as yet been detected in them, so 

 that their precise geological position is uncertain, and they might be placed 

 either in the carboniferous or lower trias formations. It is, therefore, 

 justifiable to avoid a closer designation of the whole group indicating 

 only its place underneath the true triassic rocks. 



( 335 ) 



