138 Proposed Scientific search for [Feb. 



Though nearly the whole formation is gneiss, that rock is very sel- 

 dom found horizontally stratified ; indeed I never myself remember so 

 seeing it : but has everywhere undergone displacement, as might have 

 been expected, from the acute angle at which such lofty mountains rise. 



A variety of minerals exist at scattered distances ; but nowhere in 

 such quantities, as to impugn the fact of the general character being 

 gneiss rock. Besides iron ores, in rolled masses, of a silicious kind, 

 which are not unfrequeutly found, I have heard of no metallic minerals 

 having been as yet discovered. Graphite or black-lead ore, which is 

 found very abundantly, is the only one of the least importance, that I 

 have heard even alluded to. 



The general gneiss formation is however of a highly metalliferous 

 description ; and the very same adjoining, and probably continued for- 

 mation, is in Tibet, at higher elevations, known to be as far as ex- 

 plored, very productive in metals ; while the yet unexplored is prodi- 

 gious in comparison to that known at all. 



At the foot of this portion of the Sub-Himalayan range, where the 

 rivers pass out, there are few deep alluvial deposits ; the rapid currents 

 frequently carrying far below, and distributing over a vast space, all 

 finer particles ; the Balasun and Mahanuddee are the only rivers as 

 yet well known at their exits from the hills ; and no gold washing 

 has ever been known to have occurred there ; nor have any minerals of 

 value been found, except carbonate of lime, in the shape of travertin, 

 and tufa. Fine aluminous iron ore is however found amongst the 

 Morung hills ; and copper ores have also there been extracted, though 

 the sites are now unknown. 



With the exception of the absence of volcanoes, the Himalaya range, 

 as far as known, consists in the main body of the very same mineral 

 matter, as constitutes the chief nidus of all the valuable metallic ores 

 found amidst the Cordilleras of the Andes ; the gneiss of the former 

 only differing in an after process of nature from the granite and syenite, 

 of the latter ; while the Sub-Himalayas are covered with alluvial, and 

 the Andes with green stone, and amygdaloid, basalt, and other trap 

 formations. 



It would seem not improbable, at the time that the quartz, felspar 

 and mica forming the body of the Andes, were undergoing the ce- 

 menting process in a semi -fluid state at a vast depth, and consequently 





