WESTERN HIMALAYA. 23 



Against this evidence, it is true, not only our very superficial know- 

 ledge of the geology of Southern Hundes may be urged, but the 

 probability of the existence of a sedimentary zone north of the Kailas 

 mountains is supported by the following arguments. 



Thanks to the geological reconnaissances of Godwin-Austen, 

 Stoliczka and Lydekker the structure of the Western Himalayas 

 has been made pretty well known. On the important papers of 

 these authors the masterly description of the mountain-system of 

 Kashmir and Ladakh by Eduard Suess (Das Antlitz der Erde, I Bd., 

 pp. 559-565) has been based. He proposes the following structural 

 division of the Western Himalayas: 1 — 



a. Sub-Himalayas (tertiary with outcrops of older rocks). 



b. Pir Panjal (anticlinal of crystalline and metamorphic rocks). 



c. Synclinal of Kashmir (mesozoic and palaeozoic). 



d. Zanskar (crystalline zone, corresponding to the main axis of the 



Central Himalayas). 



e. Synclinal of Spiti (palaeozoic and mesozoic). 

 /. Eocene zone of Leh (Upper Indus Valley). 

 g. Crystalline zone of the Ladakh Range. 



h. Sedimentary belt of Baltistan (upper palaeozoic and mesozoic), 

 t. Gneissic zone of the Mustagh Range (Karakorum). 



Whilst the outer crystalline zone of the Pir Panjal and the 

 synclinal sedimentary belt of Kashmir come to an end before reaching 

 the Sutlej river, both the crystalline zone of the Zanskar and the 

 sedimentary belt of Spiti find their continuation in the Central 

 Himalayas of Kumaon and Gurhwal. To the crystalline mass of the 

 Zanskar correspond the enormous gneissic masses of the Ke(Jarnath 

 peaks, of the Nanda Devi (25,660 feet) and Nampa. The sedimen- 

 tary belt on the northern slope of this crystalline masses, which has 

 been followed by Griesbach from the Hop G2dh to Kalapani for a 

 distance of 130 miles (210 km.), is a direct continuation of the 



1 Vide also Godwin-Austen,— The mountain-systems of the Himalaya and neighbouring 

 ranges oi India, Proceedings of the Royal Geograph. Soc, London, new ser. V, 1883, p. 610 ; 

 VI, 1884, p. 83. 



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