90 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2. 



This theoretical section shows us a succession of volcanic islands or 

 maritime or sub-aqueous volcanoes of which the base is a mass of 

 melted matter, destined to solidify as porphyry, trachyte and other 

 volcanic rocks, whilst the melted materials situated further from the 

 vents are to solidify as granite. Over the granite, we find the crust 

 more or less intact, though metamorphosed into gneiss, schist and 

 marble ; over the porphyries and trachytes we find that it has 

 been removed and torn up by the ejecting power of the melted 

 mass making its way to the vents. Over and between the volcanoes, 

 we find a very thick bed of ashes, broken stones, agglomerates 

 and lavas. Over the granite we find, after the gneiss and schists, 

 stratified deposits of Silurian shales and limestone. After . the 

 extinction of the volcanoes, we find the whole sea-bottom covered 

 with the fragments of animals of the Carboniferous period ; and thus 

 do we see in Kashmir the Carboniferous limestone resting confor- 

 mably on the volcanic rocks, and not disturbed by their intrusion. 



Of course many changes, oscillations, denudations and depositions 

 took place between the extinction of the Silurian volcanoes and the 

 great final upheaval of the Himalayas ; but these changes do not 

 appear to have been on a sufficiently grand scale to have affected, to 

 any great degree, the lithological features of the earth's crust, in the 

 portion of the globe we are considering. At the final upheaval, a 

 series of new fipsures were formed and are represented in the diagram 

 above, and the position assumed by the several slices, between these 

 fissures, is represented by the dotted outline. There are many more 

 parallel fissures, I have no doubt, but they did not cause a great up- 

 throw of one of their edges, and have therefore little to do with the 

 general configuration of the Himalayas. 



The position of the fissures, between the old volcanic lines, and not on 

 them, has produced the phenomenon that nearly all the highest peaks 

 of the Himalaya are not situated on the chain to which they belong, 

 but a little distance from it. The fissures, taking place in the weakest 

 parts of the.crust, followed the old valleys between the lines of volcanoes, 

 and the volcanic masses are therefore superior to the chain formed by 

 the edge of the fissure by the height these volcanic masses originally 

 possessed. It is also reasonable to admit that the movement of up- 

 heaval was more powerfully felt by huge masses of prophyry, trachyte, 



