340 Reviews. [April, 



Punjab. The Sub-Himalayan hills are often of considerable elevation, 

 reaching altitudes of 10,000 or 12,000 feet, and culminate in the Peak 

 of Chor and in the Dhaoladar ridge. This latter ridge, composed 

 of granitoid gneiss, and ranging nearly in a north- westerly direction, 

 forms, in the opinion of the author, the extreme north-westerly 

 prolongation of the " Eastern Himalaya," from which, however, it is 

 severed by the deep valleys of the Beas and Sutlej. To the north- 

 west, the Dhaoladar ridge sinks down, and is terminated along the 

 valley of the Ravee, while the " Western Himalaya " rises to the 

 north of this ridge, and ranges in a nearly parallel line between 

 the Chenas and the Indus. Mr. Medlicott has good Geological 

 reasons for the view he adopts regarding the line of division of the 

 Eastern and Western Himalayas ; and it is an interesting fact, first 

 noticed by Colonel Cunningham, that the subordinate hills of the 

 Western Himalaya range in lines parallel with the central axis, while 

 those of the Eastern run out at right angles from the main ridge. 

 The causes of this distinction are considered to lie in certain changes 

 in their Geological structure. 



Mr. Medlicott separates the rocks of the region of which he treats 

 into two great groups, each of which is capable of farther subdivision — 

 namely, " The Himalayan" and " Sub -Himalayan." The stratigraphical 

 distinction between these two great groups is most marked. The 

 former composes the interior central range (as far as he has examined 

 it), and consists of limestones, shales, sandstones, slates, quartzites, 

 schists, and gneiss ; the latter consisting in the lower part of shales, 

 with nummulitic limestones, and passing upwards into an assemblage 

 of strata in which sandstones and conglomerates largely predominate. 

 Of the age of the " Himalayan " group no opinion can at present be 

 formed, owing to the almost entire absence of fossils. The author 

 has only succeeded in finding a few obscure impressions of bivalve 

 shells in a band of limestone, which do not throw any light on the 

 subject ; but in the succeeding group of the " Sub-Himalayan " beds, we 

 pass from rocks of whose age we can only form vague conjectures to 

 those of an age strongly defined in the Geological series. Between 

 the two groups there is in all probability a vast gap in time, as 

 M. D'Archiac refers these Himalayan beds, though with hesitation, 

 to the Devonian period. The shales and limestones of the " Sub- 

 Himalayan " series contain shells* and nummulites, which enable us 

 to refer these beds to the early Tertiary age with the same amount 

 of certainty that we refer a coin stamped with the effigy of one of the 

 Caesars to its period in Roman history. f 



From what has been stated above, it is not to be inferred that we 

 are unacquainted with the age of any of the rocks which compose 

 the lofty range of the Himalayas. Through the labours of Captain 

 Strachey and other explorers we have been made acquainted with 

 groups, some of which rise into the loftiest altitudes, charged with 



* A list of which is furnished by Dr. Kane, pp. 99-100. 



f For the sake of the general reader, it may be explained that " nummulite " 

 means a stone-coin ; and the stone of which the Pyramids are built is mainly 

 formed of nummulitic rock. J. B. Jukcs's ' Manual of Geology.' 



