STRATIGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 39 



Chapter III. — Stratigraphical features : Crystalline 

 rocks; Paleozoic group. 



The principal features of the structure of the Himalayas are 

 repeated in almost every section within the system. I have already 

 shown that the Tibetan plateau, with its fringing belt of the Hima- 

 layan ranges is formed by a system of more or less parallel flexures, 

 which can generally be followed for long distances along the southern 

 rim of the Tibetan plateau. 



H. B. Medlicott * proved that the lower ranges of the Himalayas, 

 with the tertiary belt, had undergone the same crushing and folding 

 process which has shaped the Himalayan system into parallel ranges. 

 Forthe North-Western Himalayas Lydekker 2 proved asimilar arrange- 

 ment of folded flexure, and Stoliczka 3 has shown how such flexure may 

 eventually result in inverted faulting. On a former occasion 4 I have 

 given my own interpretation of the geological structure of the Kumaun 

 Himalayas, to which I have little to add. I believe that the section 

 described in that paper represents the geological structure of the 

 greater part of the Central Himalayas ; a certain amount of faulting 

 and intrusion of igneous rocks have modified the normal order in 

 several sections ; but in general outlines the Himalayas consist of a 

 succession of inverted flexures, leaning over towards the south-west* 

 Two great anticlinals at least can be distinguished, which inclose 

 synclinals, within which the fossiliferous stratified rocks are preserved. 



These synclinals form long irregular strips inclosed between 

 immense flexures of older crystalline formations. The southern 

 range of the Central Himalayas is formed of, perhaps, the largest of 

 these anticlinals; the upper portion of its arch having been destroyed 

 by denudation, there is only left what might be taken to be a conform- 

 able series of metamorphic strata. North of this inverted flexure 

 follows a huge synclinal trough, in which all the highly contorted and 

 crushed sequence of sedimentary rocks are inclosed, which form the 

 subject of this memoir. 



1 H. B. Medlicott, Mem. Geol. Sur. Ind., 1864, Vol. III. 



2 R. Lydekker, Cashmir et. Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1883, Vol. XXII. 

 8 F. Stoliczka, Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind , 1865, Vol. V, p. 34. 



4 Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., Vol. XIII, p. 84. 



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