1867.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 41 



side of the Sutlej, great beds of limestone rich in Silurian fossils.* 



Mr. Salter has recognized the following genera among Captain 



Strachey 's fossils : — 



Cheirurus. Strophomena. Cyrtoceras. Chcetetes. 



Lichas, Orthis. Litnites. Crinoid Stems, &c. 



Asaphus. Leptcena. Tentaculites. 



Calymene. Lingula. Murchisonia. 



Illoenus. Orthoceras. Ptilodictya. 



Mr. Salter, M. Barrande and M. de Verneuil, who saw some of the 

 fossils collected by Colonel Strachey, agree that they indicate beds 

 of Lower Silurian. We shall see that beds of Silurian also exists in 

 the huge mountains to the north of Skardo and near the Mustak 

 Pass in the Korakoram chain. 



But let us first relate what Colonel B. Strachey found in the high 

 ranges south of the Sutlej. 



The Silurian above mentioned rests on beds of slate without fossils, 

 and this slate rests on schists, mica-schists and other rocks of the 

 metamorphic group. Then above the Silurian limestone, some beds 

 of carboniferous must exist, though they were not found in situ 

 by the explorer ; Producti, Athyris Royssii and other well known 

 fossils were found in loose boulders near the Niti Pass. I believe 

 also that some of the shells placed by Colonel Strachey and Mr Salter 

 in other groups belong really to the carboniferous ; such is the 

 Ghonetes placed by Colonel Strachey in the Mushelkalk, but trans- 

 ferred to the carboniferous by Mr. Salter ; the Ptilodictya Fenea 

 (Salter), the narrow variety, which I have found in carboniferous 

 beds in Kashmir ; (it was naturally placed with the Silurian fossils 

 by Mr Salter, on account of the Ptilodictya having been found as 

 yet only in Silurian beds in Europe and America) ; the Spirifer 

 Stracheyii, (Salter) placed among the Triassic fossils by Mr. Salter, 

 and which is common enough in the Weean bed of carboniferous 

 limestone in Kashmir ; and lastly the Spirifer Rajah (Spir. Keilhavii 7 



* On the geology of part of the Himalaya and Tibet, by Capt. R. Strachey, 

 Bengal Engineers, F. G. S. in Proceedings Geological Society for June 1851, 

 also " Palaeontology of Niti in the Northern Himalaya, being descriptions and 

 figures of the Paleeozoi and Secondary fossils collected by Colonel R. Strachey 

 R. E." " Descriptions by T. W. Salter, F. G. S. 5 A. L. S. and H. T. Blanford 

 A. R. S. M., F. G. S— Calcutta 1865." 



