1842.] of the Himmalay a Mountains. lxix 



coherence. The friability and want of consistence of the substance, 

 prevented the retention of any specimens, as they fell to pieces immedi- 

 ately on being detached, though the rock itself, of considerable size, 

 seemed persistent. I am inclined to think it was merely part of a dilu- 

 vial deposit and not a legitimate sandstone, no specimen of which I have 

 ever observed in such a locality. In reality though the sandstones are 

 often friable, and have little coherence, yet I have never seen any which 

 exactly resembled this rock. 



144. At Sikol, in the bed of the Dhaolee, I found large masses of 

 quartz rock stratified, probably with great regularity, but the fissures of the 

 strata so intermixed with cross cleavages, that it was difficult to separate 

 them, and say which really was the plane of the strata. The colour 

 of this rock was greenish, it is also seen near Masooa, rather a 

 large village near the rope bridge by which the Dhaolee is here crossed. 

 The dip was N. E., inclination about 60° to 70°; close by the bridge 

 it appears to pass into micaceous schist. Further on in the valley of 

 the Mundaknee, it appears to pass into chloritic schist. 



145. I must not leave the Dhaolee, however, without saying some 

 thing of those great accumulations of boulder stones, the very sight of 

 which strikes the traveller with astonishment, and forces him to admit 

 the action of some great rush of waters. These diluvian beds are here 

 seen on a scale, which sets at nought any theory that should derive its 

 agent from the body of water at present occupying that channel. 

 These deposits seem always to be found in those parts of the river's 

 course where the valley widens considerably, at least it has been so 

 in all the instances I have yet had to notice. In the immediate bed 

 of the river, the fragments consist of two kinds, the one perfectly rounded, 

 the other subangular. The rounded fragments consist of gneiss, gra- 

 nite and hornblende rock, the other of quartz rock and mica slate, the 

 two latter being the rocks in situ in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 rounded fragments ; these are of all sizes from boulders of four feet in 

 diameter to the small grains of sand. That the river in its greatest 

 floods, and in some particular parts of its course possesses the power 

 of moving these stones, is certain, from the deep hollow noises heard 

 every now and then. That it can do little more than merely move them 

 is equally certain, from the fact of these boulders always occupying the 

 wide parts of the valley. There are tracts here of a mile in length, and 



