58 GRIESBACH : GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



He divided the pre-carboniferous rocks into 1. Babeh series, 2. 



Stoliczka's divisions Muth series 5 the first represents, according to 

 of Silurians. Stoliczka, the lower and upper silurians, whereas 



the second series he places doubtfully amongst the silurians. Had 

 he devoted more time to this most difficult ground, or had he been 

 able to study the same formation in a more accessible section, he 

 would have seen that these divisions were incorrect. The Babeh 

 series embraces the whole of what I have termed haimanta system, 

 and the greater part of the lower silurians in some sections. But 

 the Muth series I found to be partly silurian and partly (the Muth 

 quartzite) carboniferous. The full details of the case will be found 

 in my chapter on Spiti. To adopt, therefore, Stoliczka's nomen- 

 clature would only perpetuate an error ; most of the horizons in 

 Spiti can easily be identified both by their lithological character 

 as well as their fossil contents with corresponding horizons in the 

 Niti area, and these again with horizons in Europe, so that the neces- 

 sity of adopting local nomenclature disappears. 



The silurians are sharply defined also in Spiti; they are inclosed 



Sharply defined in conformably between the red quartz shales (3) 



pitl * of the haimanta system, and the dark Coral 



limestone of devonian or lower carboniferous age. Here also I could 



distinguish two well defined divisions, namely, (1) Coral limestone with 



lower silurian fossils ; (2) pink and brown quartzites alternating with 



greenish grey shales, with few fossils, mostly upper silurian types. 



The only instances of contemporaneous igneous rocks within the 



silurians seem to be found in the Spiti area: I 

 Interbedded traps. 



have not seen these rocks, but Stoliczka has 

 noticed the same (p. 20). They are apparently entirely wanting 

 in the eastern sections. 



4. Upper Palaeozoic systems : Devonian and Carboniferous. 



Between the dirty pink and brown quartzites of the upper silu- 

 rians (5) and the Otoceras beds (10) of the lower trias, a great 

 system of rock formations is found in the Central Himalayas which 

 in age must range from the lower devonian to upper carboniferous. 



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