13 WAAGEN WYNNE : GEOLOGY OF MOUNT SIRBAN. 



The fossils are mostly coated with iron oxide, and project slightly 

 from the weathered surface of the rock, but these portions only could be 

 obtained. They are chiefly cephalopodsj with a few gastropods ; one 

 Inoceramus has also been collected. The ammonites found belong nearly 

 all to the exclusively cretaceous groups of the Cristati and Inflati j 

 besides these several species of Ancyloceras, Jnisoceras, and Baculiles 

 appear. The Belemniles are numerous and of rather extraordinary size 

 for their geological age. The impression which the whole of the fossils 

 leaves upon the observer is that of a ' Gault^ fauna. 



Above this fossiliferous zone comes a group of thin-bedded lime- 

 stones, of gray colour, with even bedding planes, but apparently destitute 

 of organic remains; it may belong either to the cretaceous or the 

 nummulitic rocks, but from its absence in other places at the base of the 

 latter formation, it is considered more likely to be a member of the 

 former. 



Nothing in the geologicaT literature of the Himalayas with which 

 we are acquainted would have led us to anticipate the occurrence of any 

 cretaceous zone except " Rudista limestone," yet we were not taken by 

 surprise, but rather expected to find another representative of the cre- 

 taceous formation, having already observed along the frontier and in 

 other parts of the Punjab an equivalent of the Neocomien group. The 

 latter is, however, apparently not represented at Sirban, while the fossili- 

 ferous zone and overlying limestones may be equivalent to the middle 

 and upper sub-divisions of the cretaceous series. Turning again to the 

 memoir upon Spiti, we find the following succession given : — 



Chikkiin shales ■> 

 Chikkim limestone j 

 Gieumal sandstone I 



Spiti shales 



The Chikkim limestone may with some probability be upon the 

 same horizon as the thin-bedded cretaceous limestones of Sirban, but 

 ( 342 ) 



