1853.] VICARY GEOLOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS. 73 



in a state fit for identification. Saurian remains are, however, plen- 

 tiful ; I am not so sure with respect to Mammalian remains, but as 

 the specimens are in good hands, I hope soon to settle that point. 



Crossing the ridge of the Subathoo Range, and moving down the 

 north-eastern slope to the lower road to Bojh, the red and blue 

 shales are again met with, and in a cutting to form the road I 

 detected some fine Saurian fossils in red shale ; this place is about 

 800 feet lower than the Nummulite beds at Subathoo, and from their 

 dip I hoped to have met with them, but though I found the shales 

 with their peculiar fossils, I foiuid not a trace of the Nummulites ; 

 neither was an attentive examination of the hills for eight miles 

 farther to the south-east more successful. I was unable to examine 

 farther in the line of the dip, but I may mention that a prolongation 

 of this line would leave Simla eighty miles (or more) to the left, and 

 that in moving towards Simla from the most northern portion of the 

 Nummulite beds visited by me, viz. from the village of Kukkur- 

 huttee near the Iron Bridge, by which the road from Subathoo to 

 Simla crosses the Burra Gumber River, a fault of great magnitude 

 is met with, and the Gumber at that point finds its way at a low 

 level (about 2000 feet above the sea) through it. The fine section 

 exposed at this place exhibits a precipitous face of dark slates and 

 coarse limestone (No. 12) with vertical beds, and devoid of fossils. 

 From hence to Simla, eighteen miles, we pass over hills of shales 

 and slates with coarse limestone beds (No. 13), and Simla itself is 

 for the most part made up of clay-slates and rude limestone beds : in 

 all this line of country there is not a fossiliferous rock. 



It is interesting to observe the progress so rapidly being made in 

 our geological knowledge of the Himalayas, and the discovery of 

 Tertiary formations at very distant points along the range, on the 

 westerly slopes. We are now acquainted with two places, remote 

 from each other, where sure Nummulitic Tertiaries are found ; viz. 

 far to the southward at Chirra-Poonjee, long known from its fossils, 

 published by Dr. M'Clelland in the Calcutta Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, and at Subathoo. The former place has lately 

 been visited by Mr. Oldham, Geological Surveyor in Bengal, whose 

 valuable observations have set all doubt at rest ; he assures us that 

 the rocks of Chirra-Poonjee with their fossils are undoubtedly Ter- 

 tiary, a fact long suspected by Indian geologists. A specimen from 

 this vicinity kindly given to me by Dr. Hooker, the adventurous and 

 able explorer of Sikkim, is a grey limestone full of Nummulites; 

 in mineralogical structure and fossils it strongly resembles the harder 

 class of Scinde nummulitic rocks. It is to lae hoped, now that a 

 sure geological horizon has been fixed on the westerly slopes of the 

 Himalayas, that our geological knowledge of these mountains will 

 steadily progress. I regret that ill-health and causes beyond my 

 control compelled me to leave India, and prevented me from following 

 up my own observations near Subathoo with more useful effect. 



