lo8 HAYDEN : GEOLOGY OF TIRAH AND BAZAR VALLEY. 



II— ChOra and the Bazar Valley. 



In the foregoing pages I have given a brief sketch of the area lying 

 between the Samana Range and the southern slopes of the Safed 

 Koh, and imperfect as is our knowledge of that area, it is un- 

 happily less incomplete than that of the country lying immediately 

 to the north of the Bdra Valley. Owing to a heavy fall of snow, the 

 passes between the Bdra and BazaV Valleys were blocked, and it was 

 considered expedient to enter the latter valley by way of the 

 Khaibar. From the B5ra Valley, therefore, the route lay across the 

 plains via Bira Fort to Jamrud. As already stated, the trias shales 



Rocks between Bara are the last rocks seen before descending into 

 Fort and jamrud. the plainSj bufc between B£ra Fort and Jam- 



rud, a small spur, shown on the map as the eastern prolongation of 

 the Surghar Range, runs out to within a short distance of the 

 road, and I was, therefore, enabled to examine it to some extent. It 

 is composed of hard, banded and flaggy limestones, to a great extent 



Carboniferous lime- crystalline, dipping at high angles to the north. 

 stone " The limestone is greatly altered, and I could 



find no fossils. It is, however, identical with the rock seen on 

 Ghund Ghar, the hill overhanging the eastern mouth of the Khai- 

 bar, and also with much of the limestone of the Rohtas hill. This 

 latter rock has already been described as carboniferous by Mr. 

 Griesbach, who found that it " dips (in reversed order) below a 

 series of shales, which are in great force from ij mile south-east of 

 AH Mas] id to the eastern mouth of the Khaibar. " This was ap- 

 parently the southern limit of the area examined by Mr. Griesbach, 

 and the expedition into the Baza> Valley has fortunately enabled 

 me to carry the section some miles further to the south. There 

 still remains, however, a considerable gap between that valley and 

 the Surghar Range, of which we can only conjecture the geology. 

 ( io8 ) 



