1842.] of the Himmalay a Mountains, cxxiii 



from them, not in any thing like a decomposing slate, but equally hard 

 and equally beautiful with the body of the mass ; nor is it easy to un- 

 derstand, what is the cause of this separation. Some further details will be 

 brought forward when we come to the Dhee bed. At present, we may go 

 on to say, that the eastern boundary of the Chumpawut bed has not yet 

 been traced. To the West, it is succeeded by micaceous argillaceous 

 schist, which passes immediately into well-defined argillaceous strata. 

 These continue to Lohooghat cantonment. 



265. It is scarcely necessary, after the long details already given of 

 this rock, to enter into any more ; it may be therefore sufficient to say, 

 that it is a fine, granular, grey, compact, blue, chloritic, arenaceous and 

 earthy, most probably the result of decomposition, as though perfectly soft 

 and little differing from clay, it has yet the laminar structure distinctly 

 marked. Near the cantonment in the bed of the stream by the bridge, it 

 approaches to a greywacke, and is full of quartz veins. It contains, I 

 think, felspar, certainly mica and quartz, but the composition is arenaceous. 

 It dips to N. E., and at an angle of 54°. In the cantonment as before 

 noticed, excellent roofing slate abounds, of which circumstance the of- 

 ficers have taken advantage in building. The granular type contain- 

 ing much quartz, and sometimes chlorite, continues as far as the bed 

 of the stream below Furkah. There a quartz rock is seen distinctly strati- 

 fied, dipping N. E. 15°, at an angle of 54°. This rock contains felspar, 

 and might almost be called a quartzose gneiss. Ascending hence to 

 Farkah, the granan begins to establish itself, till at that place it is per- 

 ceived that we are arrived at another granite bed, situated almost exactly 

 in the hypothetically drawn line through Chumpawut, parallel to the 

 direction of the strata. 



266. The character of the rock which composes this bed, is pre- 

 cisely that already described. The same excess of felspar, the same soft 

 crumbly material, in fact a perfect granan. In the vicinity of Furkah, 

 there is a mass of limited extent, consisting almost wholly of felspar, 

 which it would seem is stratified ; but with this exception, the whole 

 of the country for many miles, presents the same roundish projecting 

 amorphous masses. The large blocks are not so common in this tract 

 as at Chumpawut, but towards Dhee they become very numerous, and 

 of enormous size. Here it is that the circumstances of their desquama- 

 tion may be best studied, and some light thrown on their nature and 



