^4 DIENER : GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF CHITICHUN 



mesozoic synclinal of Spiti. This sedimentary zone of fossiliferous 

 deposits, ranging from the silurian into the cretaceous formation, is 

 one of the most important features in the structure of the Himalayas. 

 In the district of Chitichun it is intimately connected with the tertiary 

 belt of the Upper Indus Valley in Ladakh, our Tibetan crags forming 

 part of these two united zones (e and /of the foregoing scheme). 



Having been able to follow the sedimentary belt of Spiti as an 

 almost uninterrupted zone from the Suru river in Kargil to the 

 frontier of Nepal and Byans, we must consequently look on the 

 crystalline mountain ranges to the north of this zone as a structural 

 continuation of the gneissic Ladakh range. The Kailas mountains, 

 the southern slopes of which have been reconnoitred by Strachey, 

 belong to this crystalline zone of Ladakh. None of the fossiliferous 

 beds of the Bhot Mahals of JohaV and Painkha*nda have been found, 

 neither in the Kailas range nor in the vicinity of the Ma'ndsarowar 

 lakes. Nor are we justified in expecting their discovery so far as 

 we may judge from the structural analogies with the Western 

 Himalayas. If any sedimentary zone exists beyond the valley of 

 the Sutlej river in Hundes, we must suppose it to form a continuation 

 of the sedimentary belt of Baltistan. The regularity in the arrange- 

 ment of the structural zones in the Western Himalayas is a strong 

 argument in favour of this supposed continuation of the palaeo-meso- 

 zoic belt of Baltistan into Hundes. But this sedimentary belt must 

 by all accounts be looked for on the northern slopes of the Kailas 

 range. 



This problematic continuation of the zone of Baltistan to the 

 north of the Kailas mountains is the only possible source of the 

 hypothetical lambeaux de recouvrement in the Chitichun area. 3 An 



1 The existence of a sedimentary synclinal along the northern slopes of the crystalline 

 anticlinal of the Kailas range has also been advocated by Griesbach (Mem . Geol. Survey Ind. 

 Vol. XXIII, p. 40). 



2 1 need scarcely dwell on the fact, that the few fossils, which were collected in the 

 sedimentary belt of Baltistan near Shigar by Godwin-Austen, are certainly not sufficient to 

 prove an identity of the development of sedimentary strata in Baltistan and in the Chitichun 

 area. 



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