9 6 



GRIESBACH : GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



The lowest member of the haimantas is well represented in the 

 Lower haimantas of lower part of the Kharbasiya gorge. Here the 

 the Kharbasiya gorge. river has eroded through the thick beds of hard 

 dark purple quartzites and conglomerates, forming steep precipices 

 on each side. The lower portion of the formation rests immediately 

 on the gneiss and consists of massive, but irregular beds of the 

 quartz conglomerate which I<found in all the sections where the 

 haimantas are exposed in the Himalayas. As their character does 

 not in the least vary over the entire extent of area, I refer to the 

 paragraph, p. 51, for its description. This conglomerate, which 

 in places strongly resembles a boulder-bed, merges into massive in- 

 tensely hard dark purple quartzites ; but even in the latter I found 

 occasional strings of quartzite or gneiss pebbles. Conglomerate layers 

 occur again at several horizons, identically the same as in the bottom 

 beds. That they are separate horizons, not repetitions through faulting 

 or folding, is clearly seen in the grand cliffs formed by the Kharbasiya 

 gorge. The quartzites and conglomerates merge upwards into the 

 red quartz shales (3). 



A broad beR of the division (2) may be seen along the slopes on 

 , the left side of the Dhauli Ganga, and again on 



Left side of the & > & 



Dhauli Ganga; Ganes both sides of the Ganes Ganga, where the fault 

 Ganga. 



shown in the sections on pi. 3 has pushed the 



haimantas over younger strata. 



Each one of the streams which join the Dhauli Ganga on its left 

 side has exposed good sections of the haimantas. The road from 

 Niti to Hundes passes partly along the boundary between the division 

 2 and the gneiss, and the road from Niti to the Marchauk pass crosses 

 a wide belt of the entire system, both 2 and 3. 



The dip of these strata varies considerably, but averages about 30 

 northeast in the sections north-east and north of Niti. 



The Shanti stream near Niti, which drains the heights over which 



the Chor Hoti pass leads, exposes along a dis- 

 Shanti valley. . . 



tance of about 4 miles fine sections of the hai- 



manta system, greatly contorted and crushed. Faulting to a large 



( 96 ) 



