cxliv Report of the Mineralogical Survey [No. 126*. 



ed them to be connected. This is one of the difficulties attending so 

 early an attempt to generalise ; for the present it may be sufficient to 

 view all these schists as constituting one formation. This formation 

 will then be found to be of nearly equal extent with that of the gneiss, 

 being in breadth — miles, and stretching, as that does, from river to 

 river, it will terminate in those mountains which form the northern 

 boundaries of the several Doars, and in the line connecting them. 



305. In this method of viewing these rocks, it may be stated, that 

 there is but one general formation (of primary rocks,) besides that of 

 the Himmalaya gneiss,* and it is worthy of remark, that they divide 

 the whole tract pretty equally between them. The schistose forma- 

 tion is no doubt stratified, though, it is thought, not so regularly as the 

 gneiss, and its strata are often much more inclined, much more con- 

 torted, and present greater irregularities, both of curvature and reversal 

 of the dip. It is, however, to be noted, that mountains of this formation 

 do not present the same facilities for examining the strata, as those 

 which are composed of gneiss. Being in general so much more sub- 

 ject to decay, they have a very thick bed of local debris which effec- 

 tually conceals the rock in situ, and in such cases, the character is 

 necessarily taken from that of the debris. The effect of this is to give 

 these mountains a rounded and softened contour, which distinguishes 

 them at once from the serrated and bare rocky ridges of the gneiss 

 formation. 



306. The mineralogical character of these schists is variable; but this 

 is not only true of the whole formation, viewed as comprising rocks to 

 which distinct titles have always been allotted, but also of the varieties 

 which are referable to any one of those titles. And the many anoma- 

 lous rocks produced by the intermixture, and transitions of these, form a 

 numerous band, strictly speaking, belonging to none of them considered 

 by itself, and therefore strengthening the view I have taken of the 



* In confining the number of primary formations in so extensive a tract to two, 

 I may be thought to indulge in too large a generalisation. It may be said, that many 

 of the beds I mentioned as contained in the clay slate, may be in fact formations. It 

 is proper, therefore, that I should explain what 1 mean by a bed; for half our mistakes 

 in geology are occasioned by using words in a wrong sense, frequently in no sense 

 at all. By a bed then I mean, a mass not veinous, which is surrounded on every side 

 by the same rock. It may be stratified or not; it is unnecessary to add the term subor- 

 dinate, as this definition includes that idea. It has another advantage, that it involves 

 no theory. 



