1866.] Geology of the Western Himalaya, &c. 89 
The communication made by Admiral Boutakof, who has lone 
distinguished himself by many years of labour in this region, was 
listened to with great attention, and received with great enthusiasm. 
We could not give here more than the mere outlines of the paper, 
which he is now preparing for the press, and which will appear with 
a map of the Syr-Daria. There is no doubt that Admiral Boutakot’s 
work will be an agreeable acquisition for modern geographers. 
Kashmir, the Western Himalaya and the Afghan Mountains, a geological 
_ paper by Aupert M. Vercuurn, Lsq., Bengal Medical Service ; with 
a note on the fossils by M. Epnovarp pr Vernuxin, Membre de 
? Académie des Sciences, Paris, 
[Received 11th March, 1865. | 
IntTRODUCTION. 
Of all the great chains of mountains on our Planet, the most 
stupendous is, singularly enough, the least known to the geologist. 
Many fossils have indeed been collected by travellers in the Himalaya, 
and a few have been determined ; but satisfactory sections and careful 
descriptions are very scarce, and it has not yet been found practicable 
to attempt any general grouping and arrangement of the rocks and 
beds of these mountains. Jacquemont’s researches in Kashmir have 
not, I believe, much advanced our, knowledge of the geology of the 
country. Mr. Vigne was no geologist, and his observations were not 
sufficiently accurate for scientific purposes; the same remarks apply, 
more or less, to most visitors who have published what they saw 
amongst the higher ranges. Captain R. Strachey, R. H. in his papers 
onthe geology of the Himalaya, between the Sutlej and the Kali 
rivers, gives a map and two sections which are of great interest; they 
do not, however, refer to the portion of the Himalaya which I have 
studied, and they leave yet a vast field for more precise investigations. 
I regret not haying been able to consult Capt. H. Strachey’s paper 
