1866.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 113 
regularity and evenness of the stratification of these cinder beds 
renders it highly probable that the showers of ejecta fell in a shallow 
sea in which the volcanoes formed islands. It appears to me, that we 
cannot refuse to admit that the porphyry was the base of the vol- 
canoes, and indeed the matter which failed to escape through the 
vent in the earth’s crust, whilst the felstone or clinkstone and varicties 
of trachytic rocks into which the porphyry always passes, are lavas 
which have flowed under the pressure of the sea. Hi these views 
are admitted, we have a series of volcanoes beginning at the Kaj Nag, 
and forming an are along the north-east boundary of the valley of 
Kashmir, down again to the mountains of Badrawar : of this arc of 
volcanoes the Pir Punjal chain is the chord. Can we wonder, huge 
though the chain is, at its being in a great measure formed by ejecta 
of volcanoes received in a sea gulf and there arranged in conformable 
layers? The slate, as we shall see in the next chapter, was formed 
during the intervals of volcanic activity, and it is not improbable that 
the continual shower of ashes and hot stones into a shallow bay kept 
the water at a temperature too high for the development of animal 
or vegetable life. 
Since writing the above paragraph, Capt. G. Austen has informed 
me that beds of unmistakably volcanic rocks, such as amgydaloid 
and coarse greenstone, are interbedded with the slate and other rocks 
of the Pir Punjal. This is precisely what occurs in the hills north 
of the valley of Kashmir, we may therefore regard the Pir Punjal 
as a mass of volcanic ejecta interbedded with slate which was 
deposited during the periods of volcanic tranquillity. 
Cuaprer Il.—The Mountains North and North-East of Kashmir. 
17. By referring to the map, we observe that the Kashmir valley 
is an elongated trough with its longer axis directed 8. H.—N. W. The 
Jheelum has a similar general direction, as far as the Woolar Lake, 
and the smaller stream which drains the north-western end of the 
valley flows from the N. W. to the S.E. To the north-east of 
this axis, we notice long spurs of hills which descend to the water- 
