INTRODUCTION. 



11 



This publication completes, as it were, the researches of General 

 Strachey; it contains description and figures of the fossil remains 

 found by the latter in the Niti area. Up to the present it is the only 

 full account of the palaeontology of the Himalayas. 



1865, Stoliczka, Dr. F. — Geological sections across the Himalayan 

 mountains from Wangtu bridge on the river Sutlej to 

 Sungdo on the Indus, etc. Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind., V, 

 pt I, 1—54 (1865). 

 This memoir may perhaps be looked upon as the most important 

 amongst the Himalayan writings, since the views expressed by Dr. 

 Stoliczka have found extensive application by most of the later 

 authors on Himalayan geology. Subsequently to the publication of 

 this, Dr. Stoliczka wrote a number of papers (see list) on various geo- 

 logical sections in the North-Western Himalayas and Tibet ; in all of 

 them he adopted the classification set forth in the above paper. Had 

 he ever been able to re-visit Spiti and carefully survey the ground, he 



* 



would no doubt have entirely modified his views, which, Hound, were 

 not always correct. I give here his list of formations. 

 In descending order he distinguishes 



Chikkim shales and limestone 

 Gieumal sandstone 

 Spiti shales . . 



Earthy shales . ... 



Upper Tagling limestone 

 Lower do. do. 



Para limestone 

 Lilang series . . . 



Kuling series . 



Muth series • 

 Babeh do. 



. Upper Cretaceous. 



. Upper Jurassic ? 



. Middle Jurassic? 



, Jurassic. 



> Lias. 



. Rhaetic. 



. Upper Trias. 



. Carboniferous 



. Upper ■) 



. Lower ] Sllunan ' 



The above classification was adopted by Lydekker in his work 

 on Kashmir, and also by the authors of the Manual of the Geology of 

 India. I also tried at first to identify the strata, as I found them in 

 the, Niti area with the descriptions given by Stoliczka from the 

 Spiti ground, but entirely failed. In the Niti area, and other sec- 

 tions of the Central Himalayas, the sequence differed entirely from 

 that given by Stoliczka, and I could do nothing else but either give 



( u ) 



