468 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.. [May 28, 



the stream. A few miles below that the Choi stream comes in on 

 the left bank from the glaciers that form on the great Nanga Parbat ; 

 a little way up this stream is seen a clear section of a deposit that 

 must be partly of glacial origin : on the right bank of it the river- 

 cliff shows 250 ft. of an irregular accumulation of material, large 

 blocks occurring in the finer stuff, while on the left bank at the 

 same level are well-stratified pebble beds ; on the plain above the 

 irregular deposit are small mounds which are clearly of moraine 

 origin ; we must therefore put these down to the combined action of 

 the old glacier and the stream. Near Gurikot*, at the junction of 

 the two branches of the Astor valley, there is alluvium with well- 

 rounded pebbles one or two hundred feet above the river, forming a 

 narrow plateau. At Astor itself, there is a sloping plateau coming 

 out of the valley of the side stream. Sections through it show a great 

 accumulation of material that must have been deposited partly by 

 the glacier itself (which still exists high up that valley), and partly 

 by the streams : from the remains of gravel here and there I con- 

 cluded that the main stream had formerly flowed on its alluvium at 

 a level of 600 or. 700 feet above the present one. Further back, 

 behind Astor, there is a curious accumulation of debris, in curved 

 beds attached to the mountain- side, which may be the remnants of 

 higher-level fans and taluses ; but their origin was not clear to me ; 

 there was, indeed, separate evidence of there having been an older 

 plateau, due to the side stream, some 200 feet above the present one. 



In the Gilgit valley, besides higher relics of former lakes, there 

 are the usual remnants of river alluvium seen a few hundred feet 

 above the present stream ; near Gilgit Fort they are at a level of 

 300 feet above ; and at different spots as far as Gakuj, which is the 

 highest point I went to, there are similar evidences. 



Summary. — To sum up, to review the different kinds of deposit 

 and to get what we can of history out of all these details of their 

 occurrence, will not take us long. 



The taluses do not tell a tale of any particular epoch. They are 

 always being formed, and when formed may stay for ages ; but 

 when once a talus is attacked from below, as by the stream that 

 eats its way to the foot of it, it quickly goes ; the material is un- 

 able to stand at any but the original slope, and so is carried away 

 to the next stage of deposit. 



Fans and alluvium are better records ; the facts about them that 

 I have given afford weighty proof of these three states having 

 succeeded one another over all the country we have dealt with : — 

 first a cutting of the ravines to something near their present depth ; 

 next a filling of them with material brought down by the streams 

 to such depths as 200, 300, and even 600 or 700 feet, and this 

 filling, though to varying depths, being general; lastly a cutting 

 down of the streams, through the alluvium they had formerly 

 accumulated, to a depth sometimes less, but perhaps on the whole 

 more, than they had originally reached. 



* There is another Ghirikot in the Gturez valley, with which this place must 

 not be confounded. 



