27S MIDDLEMISS: GBOLOGY OF HAZARA AND BLACK MOUNTAIN. 



least, marks a great stratigraphical break and which, if equivalent to 

 the Boulder-bed of the Salt Range and the Talchir bed of southern 

 and Central India, similarly marks a line of great stratigraphical dis- 

 cordance. Again, Lydekker is very imperative in his assertion that 

 in certain places the Panjal conglomerate is made up of rolled pebble 

 of gneissic rocks and that they overlie the latter unconformably. At 

 all events the metamorphism which these Panjal rocks have sustained 

 is not greater than that which has affected the Infra-Trias of Hazara. 



The possibility that the volcanic rocks of Kashmir (the amygda- 

 loids) of about Silurian age are subaerial representatives of the 

 granitic cores must not be overlooked. Dr. A. Verchere we know 

 held this view.* 



As to the statements that the granite of the Himalaya invades 

 the Upper Tertiaries in certain localities, as, for instance, in the low 

 hills south of Naini Tal that has already been proved erroneous by 

 me in a previous paper. 2 



On the whole then the age of the appearance of the crystalline 

 core of the Himalaya, whether we consider it 



Date of appearance of . ;■ 



the gneissose granite at as a thorough granite or as a slumbering gneiss 

 least Pre-Triassic. that at Qne time became functional as a granite, 



must be at least Pre-Triassic, whilst it is possible that it may be 

 earlier even than carboniferous, e.g., Silurian. At such and such a 

 period then, thus limited, the hot plastic mass invaded the ancient 

 sedimentary rocks, slates, quartzites, etc., and converted them into 

 metamorphic schists ; and this great event may possibly be con- 

 sidered as the first real step taken in laying out the foundations 

 of the Himalaya. 



The subject of the pressure metamorphism of the Himalaya has 

 Dynamic metamor- already been touched on in the present chapter, 

 phism of the Himalaya. when compar i n g the different aspects of the 

 disturbance zones. The crystalline rocks of the northernmost zone 

 of Hazara are those which have chiefly been affected. Enough 

 instances, to illustrate the particular form of dynamic change operat- 



1 Journ., Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, 1867, p. 87. 

 3 Mem., Geol. Surv. of India, Vol. XXIV, p. 

 ( 278 ) 



