104 Dr. Verchere on tJie Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2, 



a very considerable thickness ; the sinking was, however, greater than 

 the amount of deposit could compensate, and the rocks have therefore 

 the appearance of a tolerably deep sea formation at the top of the 

 Nurnuiulitic series. Then again, we have a long and steady rising of 

 the land, and in consecpience a great denudation going on, a denuda- 

 tion which has caused the removal of a great deal of the Nummulitic 

 formation, in localities where sea-currents, high-tides and other un- 

 favourable circumstances assisted in the work of destruction. It is 

 curious to notice on the top of the Nummulitic limestone, how the 

 surface of the rock has been broken by the waves ; how the fragments 

 have been rolled and rubbed and then glued together again. This 

 appearance is always seen as a bed of transition between the Num- 

 mulitic and the Miocene. A considerable time must have elapsed 

 between the end of the deposition of the bed and the breaking 

 up of it, as we must allow time for its solidification. But at any rate, 

 here, at the beginning of the Miocene epoch, we had the Nummulitic 

 limestone forming a nearly horizontal and far-reaching sea-coast, 

 covered with a very thin sheet of water, rolling and polishing pebbles. 

 But this conglomeratic layer is thin, and we very soon see a large 

 quantity of mud and sand, and pebbles of far distant rocks, brought 

 down to the sea. 



96. Let us consider the kind of map we have at the beginning of 

 the Miocene epoch, and we will have no difficulty in understanding 

 the formation of the Miocene sandstone and conglomerates of the Sub- 

 Himalayan and Sub- Afghan chains. "We have an immense expanse 

 of sea, north of the tropic of Capricorn, between the latitudes 90° W. 

 and 90° E., for, in these days, the Andes had not yet surged up and 

 most of South America was under water, as well as nearly the whole of 

 Africa, Arabia, Persia and India. There were probably groups of islands 

 where these continents now stand, but the immense, dry, thirsty 

 plains and plateaux of these countries were then under the sea. 

 There was therefore no impediment to the regular play of the Trade 

 Winds, no monsoons or winds deviated by the rarifying power of arid 

 deserts, but especially no chains of mountains to dry the S. E. 

 trade-winds before their arrival at the equator, and their ascending 

 to become upper currents with a direction to the N. E. At the 

 tropic of Cancer, these winds, still charged with the whole of the 



