﻿306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 25, 



nodules, apparently of much the same nature as the shale itself, but 

 exceedingly compact. The shale is for the most part on the other 

 hand very rotten, and the band of country along which it is found is 

 often depressed so as to form a valley, apparently in consequence of 

 this disintegration of the rock. This shale Prof. Forbes pronounces 

 to be without doubt of the age of the Oxford Clay, a conclusion in- 

 dicated by the peculiar forms of the Ammonites, several of which seem 

 to be identical with species found in beds of the same age in Cutch 

 and Scinde, which have been figured and described in the Transact. 

 Geol. Soc* 



The existence of these beds in the northern parts of the Himalaya 

 was pointed out by Sir Roderick Murchison some years ago, as proved 

 by the occurrence of some of these Ammonites which he had seen. 

 There is indeed direct evidence of the existence of these Oxford Clay 

 strata for a distance of about 200 miles to the westward of the places 

 where I have myself seen them, and their prolongation along the 

 north of the mountains for 200 miles more in an easterly direction is 

 rendered highly probable by the well-attested recurrence of the Am- 

 monites in the eastern parts of the kingdom of Nepal. 



Although we find stratified deposits apparently lying conformably 

 on the Oxfordian strata, I cannot say anything definite regarding 

 them, as they appear to be almost entirely devoid of fossils. They 

 are very hard and compact, consisting of grits, shales, and limestones, 

 and have not improbably been converted into their present state by 

 the action of eruptive rocks, which are of common occurrence in this 

 region. 



But the most striking feature of the geology of these mountains is 

 probably that which I have next to mention, viz. the existence of a great 

 Tertiary deposit at an elevation of from 14,000 to 16,000 feet above 

 the sea, still preserving an almost perfectly horizontal surface. On 

 crossing the water-shed-ridge between the streams that flow to the south 

 into the Ganges, and those that fall into the upper part of the Sutluj 

 to the north, which here constitutes the boundary between the British 

 territory and Tibet (see Map), we find ourselves on a plain 120 miles 

 in length and varying from 15 to 60 miles in breadth, that stretches 

 away in a north-westerly direction. Its western portion is everywhere 

 intersected by stupendous ravines, that of the Sutluj being nearly 3000 

 feet deep. The sections afforded by these enable us to see that this 

 plain is a deposit of boulders, gravel, clay, and mud of all varieties of 

 fineness, laid out in well-marked beds that run nearly parallel with 

 the surface and that hardly deviate from a horizontal position. 



The discovery of the fossilized remains of several of the larger 

 mammalia distinctly marks the Tertiary age of this deposit. The 

 existence of such fossil remains in the northern parts of these moun- 

 tains had been long known, but we were altogether ignorant of the 

 precise locality whence they came, and had no facts before us from 

 which any conclusions could be formed as to their geological import. 

 The Niti Pass, from which it was said that the bones had been 

 brought, was not the place where they were found, but one of the 

 * N. Ser. vol. v. 



