﻿1851.] 



STRACHEY — GEOLOGY OF THE HIMALAYA. 



301 



further off with the limestone and steatite, and with these is also 

 commonly found a rather remarkable crystalline carbonate of mag- 

 nesia. The dip of these beds is to the N.N.E., but in the vicinity of 

 the eruptive rocks they are frequently very much disturbed and con- 

 torted, and have every appearance of having undergone considerable 

 change from the action of heat. 



In proceeding still further northward, similar strata, with large 

 quantities of limestone, continue for many miles. The strike remains 

 the same throughout, but two bands are crossed in which the dip is 

 suddenly reversed from N.N.E. to S.S.W. On one of these lines 

 of dislocation, where the strata are absolutely vertical, is a hydro- 

 sulphuretted spring. It issues from a limestone-rock, incrusting the 

 surfaces of the substances in its neighbourhood with minute crystals 

 of sulphur, and depositing a large bed of tufaceous carbonate of lime 

 as it flows onward. Some miles to the east of my section, a similar 

 spring, which is distinctly thermal, may also be seen on the same line 

 of fault ; and I have reason to suppose, from what I have heard, that 

 there is another still further to the east, nearly on the same line, at 

 the Kali River. 



The schists and limestones generally become talcose along the 

 northern part of this region, and we then pass into the crystalline 

 schists that are invariably found along the line of the great peaks, 

 and this we also find to be a line of granitic eruption. To the west 

 of the section, however, the strata to which I have been alluding are 

 for the most part converted into highly-crystalline schists, apparently 

 by the intrusion of two lines of granite, the more northern being a 

 branch of the granite of the snowy peaks, while the other, which is 

 further south, has a mineral character peculiar to itself, although it 

 still follows in general the line of strike. 



Entering the region of the crystalline schists of the great line of 

 peaks, we find the strike still remaining the same, with the dip 

 pretty constantly to the N.N.E. (see Section No. 1). Along the 

 lines on which the points of greatest elevation are found in this 

 part of the range, we invariably see for a breadth of several miles 

 veins of granite in great abundance penetrating the schists, often 

 cutting through them, but perhaps most frequently following the 

 bedding of the strata, between which they seem to have been forced. 

 The great peaks are, I think, in almost every case composed of 

 schistose rock, but the granite-veins may be most clearly seen on 

 the faces of the mountains to very great elevations. Kamet, one of 

 the highest of the peaks in this region, seems, however, to be among 

 the exceptions to this rule ; its summit, which is upwards of 25,500 

 feet above the sea, appearing to consist of granite alone. This line 

 of granite seems to be subdivided into several branches, distributed 

 generally along the strike, but otherwise not very regularly (see Map) . 

 It appears to consist, where I have seen it, almost entirely of veins 

 of moderate size, and such is probably its general character in the 

 portion of the mountains between the Sutluj and Kali ; but the veins 

 occasionally expand into masses of considerable magnitude ; and 

 more rarely large outbursts are met with that constitute whole moun- 



