STRAT1GRAPHICAL ELEMENTS: SLATE SERIES. 13 



Vast as must be the thickness of these slates, they have yielded no 



fossil remains of any sort, so far as all reliable 



Absence of fossils in evidence goes. Dr. Waagen 1 has, however, 



the slates. 



strongly advocated the claims of certain Carboni- 

 ferous fossils found among the collection of the Geological Society of 

 London, and which are imbedded in a "black slate " and labelled 

 "Panjab" as belonging to the Attock slates (the probable con- 

 tinuation of my Slate series). After a long acquaintance with the 

 slates of Hazara, and also with what I am inclined to think identi- 

 cal rocks in the Himalaya, I do not feel myself that the lithological 

 character of a few specimens simply labelled Panjab is sufficient 

 ground for calling the Attock slates or their Hazara equivalents 

 Carboniferous. If it were so, then the Silurian fossils said to have 

 been found by Dr. Falconer 2 in river boulders in the Kabul river, and 

 imbedded in a similar slate rock, would also have the same title to 

 recognition as evidence in the case, or perhaps more so, as their 

 locality is more definitely fixed. 



But although neither of these shreds of evidence can be deemed 

 sufficient for the purpose of fixing the age of these slates, it is well 

 to keep them in mind as pointing to possible, if not highly probable, 

 conjectures. 



The fossils mentioned by Wynne 3 from some limestones near 

 Dakner, and at the Mirkulan pass, are untrustworthy from the fact 

 that it is uncertain whether the limestone is an integral part of the 

 Slate series, or merely appears in the section caught along the axis 

 of a sharp fold. Many instances of the latter kind may be seen in 

 Hazara. 



On page 116 of the new edition of the Manual of the Geology 

 of India Mr. R. D. Oldham alludes to synclinal folds of this na- 

 ture; but it must be remarked that there is no confusion on the 



1 Rec. G. S. of I., Vol. XII, p. 183, 1879. 

 God win- Austen, Quart. Journ. Geol Soc., Lond., Vol. XXII, 1866. 

 Rec. G. S. of I., Vol. X, p. 227. 



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