LADAKH, NORTH-WESTERN HIMALAYA. 307 



To begin with the serpentine rocks: both Dr. Stoliczka and 

 Mr. Lydekker speak with uncertain voice regarding their mode of 

 origin, but both convey the impression that they form a large intrusive 

 mass, though in both descriptions there are not wanting indications 

 that the authors did not altogether accept this conclusion. 



I crossed these rocks once on the section from Puga to Maya and 

 again between Leh and Kashmir* In both cases I found beds of 

 clastic origin, ashes and agglomerates interstratified with traps. To 

 take the first named section : starting from Puga the first rock seen, 

 after leaving the gneiss, is a serpentinous slate; this is succeeded by 

 a conglomerate or breccia of slate and limestone, the fragments all 

 flattened by pressure and traversed by an imperfect cleavage, and 

 fine-grained laminated beds with fragments of rock included. The 

 matrix of these rocks contain many small fragments of pyroxene. 

 Further on the volcanic facies becomes more marked, and we have 

 tuff and ashes with dense pyroxenic traps, all of which have under- 

 gone more or less complete serpentinous change. 



Where the stream bends to the east, the dip of the beds, which 

 had been northwards, changes to south, but is very obscure. At the 

 bend of the stream a bed of limestone occurs among the volcanics, 

 but is cut up by faults into small patches of a few yards across scat- 

 tered up and down the hillside in almost perplexing manner, and 

 this intense cutting up of the beds is sufficient to account for the 

 absence of distinct and continuous bedding in the traps. 



As to the interpretation of this section, it would at first appear 

 that from Puga to the bend in the stream there was an ascending 

 and below that a descending section ; the crystalline limestone 

 occupying the centre of a synclinal. But lower down-stream the 

 same limestone occurs on the hills south of the valley above the 

 dense traps, and to judge by the fragments brought down by streams, 

 is overlaid by beds very like those seen in contact with the gneiss. 



On the section along the Kashmir road these features are not so 

 well seen, but even there ash- beds can be found among the traps. 



( 5 ) 



