STKATIGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 8l 



which have yet been determined. My finds in this series are, how- 

 ever, very limited, as I could not devote sufficient time to fossil col- 

 lecting whilst travelling in Tibet. It is identically the same rock as 

 Stoliczka's Chikkim limestone, which occupies the same geological 

 horizon. The limestone may be seen south-west of Dongpu in Hundes 

 (Tibet), capping the (Gieumal) cretaceous sandstone of the Ma Rhi 

 La, Balch Dhura, etc. ; also south-east of Laptel. 



These form the last remaining patches of the cretaceous formation, 



which constitutes perhaps one of the most widely 



Unconformity. .... r , . ,i t 



distributed of deposits amongst the sedimentary 

 strata in Asia. Both fossils and lithological character of the two 

 series point to great changes having occurred in the physical 

 conditions under which these deposits were laid down. In the 

 Himalayas and immediately adjoining areas there is no visible un- 

 conformity ; such however may be observed in the areas further 

 west, namely in Turkista*n and Khorassan, where a decided over- 

 lap and unconformity exists between neocomian and the overlying 

 upper cretaceous. 



Stoliczka 1 was the first to notice cretaceous rocks in the Himalayas. 



It is now shown that this system is also repre- 

 sented in Hundes north of Milam and Niti; that 

 it has a wide distribution in Tibet is demonstrated by cretaceous fossils 

 which have been found in Eastern Tibet. 2 But this system is not only 

 found along the whole length of the Himalayas, it extends also through 

 Kashmir into Afghanistan, Persia and more or less all over Central 

 Asia. I myself have wandered a good deal over the ground lying 

 between our present North-Western Frontier of India and the Central 

 Asian depression, and in numerous sections have met with a creta- 

 ceous series differing but slightly from that of the Central Himalayas. 

 In the Sulaiman range a great thickness of sandstone rests on shales 

 which I have already compared with the Jurassic Spiti shales of the 



1 Mem., Vol. V, p. 116. 



a Rec. Sur. Ind., X, pp. 21-26. 



G ( 8l ) 



