228 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



country. I find it noticed in the south-west Pingal, aud now ob- 

 serve it in the north Pingal. 



Gonduding Observations. — There are one or two curious matters I 

 would notice : most so are the water- worn beds of blocks and shingle 

 which occur along both the Jhelum and the Chandra Bagha; and always 

 at the junctions of large streams. These beds are often 200 and 300 

 feet in thickness. The question is, how were these formed ? whether 

 by glaciers having come down, or by masses of materials from the 

 hnis on either side having dammed the rivers. This last hypothesis 

 is open to many objections. Glaciers would do it ; but then one has 

 to suppose a (hiferent climate to the present, namely, much colder, 

 with a lower snow-line. 



In an early condition of this region, and when upheaved by those 

 convulsions which have produced it, the drainage-lines were evi- 

 dently less perfect and connected than they now are ; so that it pre- 

 sented numerous lakes, into which the torrents carried down their 

 shingle and detritus. At. the melting of the snows, in spring, the 

 overflow from these lakes would be very great, and thus would work 

 out courses for their waters. These rivers, even now, are wearing 

 away their beds, as is evident wherever these lacustrine deposits are 

 cut through (sometimes upwards of 200 feet thick), and seen resting 

 on the fundamental rock. 



In nearly every instance the beds of these rivers have been lowered 

 into the rock which supports the alluvial accumulation, until by 

 degrees the courses of the present rivers have been worked out. 



As the drainage becomes more perfect, the stream and rivers would 

 become narrower until they assumed the present size. The great Kash- 

 mere valley only differed from the others in extent — ^forming a small 

 inland sea, into which the torrents from the Pingals carried down 

 their shingle and boulders ; whilst, at the melting of the snows, enor- 

 mous quantities of angular blocks and of earthy detritus would slip 

 down from the higher slopes, as happens now. This was the origin 

 of the clay-deposits all over the valley (the Karewah formation). 

 The lacustrine or alluvial deposits of the central parts of the valley 

 are of fine sediment ; against the sides they contain a large admix- 

 ture of angular rocks ; and these always correspond with those of 

 the high ranges above. The great Kashmere lake was drained by the 

 sinking or erosion of the river-bed at Baramula ; so that now the small 

 lake near the city, and the larger WuUer, alone remain, the poor re- 

 presentatives of what once was. Anything which might obstruct the 

 course of the Jhelum from Baramula at any of the narrow gorges, 

 such as the falling in of masses of rock from above, would check the 

 drainage at Baramula, and so raise the level of the water within 

 the valley. This theory of mine to account for the appearances at 

 Avantipiir gets rid of the necessity of calling in recent depressions 

 and elevations, which some writers have supposed necessary ; but my 

 theory, no doubt, has its objections ; I should like to know them, 

 that I may look more into this question. 



In the geological sketch-map which I send, you will see, indicated 

 by colours, granite, gneiss, two kinds of slate-rock, the limestone 



