466 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.- [May 28, 



called Deosai. The surface-structure of it must be carefully ex- 

 amined. The plateau, though of a height varying from 12,000 to 

 13,000 feet above the sea, is not of those from which the ground 

 falls on all sides ; on the contrary, it is entirely surrounded, except 

 at the spot where its drainage finds a way out by the Shigar river, 

 by high mountains. The mountains form a ring, irregular but still 

 of a general circular form ; the diameter of this ring from crest to 

 crest of the ridges is about 25 miles. The mountains make a 

 rugged serrated barrier with a height of from 16,000 to 17,000 feet. 

 There are few low depressions in them ; on the west side there are 

 one or two about 14,000 feet, while to get out of the circle to the 

 north-east, in the way that is the highroad from Kashmir to 

 Skardu, one has to cross a pass of 15,700 feet. The face of the 

 mountains is divided into steep-faced hollows, bounded by long 

 projecting spurs ; these spurs as they slope towards the centre 

 become rounded, and show signs of ice-moulding. Further still 

 they die down, and in continuation of the line of them we find 

 strips of plateaux of detrital matter separated by valleys that 

 originated in the hollows of the mountain-ridge. It is these 

 plateaux and the flat valleys between them that constitute the plain 

 of Deosai. The diameter of the ring being 25 miles, an inner 

 concentric circle of a diameter of 15 miles will, roughly speaking, 

 include these plains, which have an elevation varying from 12,000 

 to 13,000 feet, according as we measure a valley or an intermediate 

 plateau, or according as we take measure either near to or away from 

 the mountains. The, form and structure of the plateaux can be best 

 illustrated by our taking the one I examined most in detail (that 

 marked on the Great-Trigonometrical-Survey Map SJiamoskith 

 Plains), what I saw of the rest making me think them to correspond 

 closely with this. The diagram fig. 12 gives a sectional view of it, 

 as observed from the valley next it on the north-east (named 

 Barwoi). The plateau has a regular slope of 4° from the mountain- 

 spurs for 8 or 10 miles ; it is composed of stones, mostly half- 

 rounded, some well rounded, a few angular. In size they are 

 commonly a foot or two in diameter, and from that down to the size 

 of one's fist ; but some masses I measured are as much as 6 feet, 15 

 feet, and even 30 feet across. They are mostly derived from 

 granitic rocks ; but some are of greenstone, and some of a meta- 

 morphosed slaty rock. On the side of the plateau I observed a line 

 of springs, or oozing of water, at perhaps 100 feet down from it, 

 and continuing with great regularity for a mile or two, with a dip 

 of 3°, being rather less than the slope of the plateau. It seems to 

 denote stratification of the substance, as being due to a more clayey 

 bed. The height of the plateau above the side valley varied from 

 500 feet near the mountains to 300 feet further out, the slope of 

 the present stream-bed being less than that of the high plain. It 

 will be seen that the gravel laps round some isolated rocks, which 

 are ice-moulded even above the level of it. 



Beyond the valley we have been observing from, between it and 

 the next to the north-east (called Lalpani), there is a low-level 



