100 



GRIESBACH: GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



the upper haimantas help to clear up what other- 

 Red shales (3, near " . 

 Lampak. w ise would be a scarcely intelligible jumble ot 



dark coloured beds. On the slopes of Lampak grazing grounds, vast 

 masses of glacier debris have obscured the rocks below; and where 

 the latter peep through the accumulations of disintegrated fragments, 

 they are seen to be composed of greatly contorted strata, mostly of 

 silurian age and yielding fossils belonging to that system. The steep 

 cliffs which form the right side of the glacier valley are seen to be 

 formed of strata raised up on end and greatly contorted. 



Badly preserved fossils are seen here and there in these dark, 

 mostly calcareous beds, but the great altitude, together with the im- 

 possibility of paying more than a flying visit to this desolate region, 

 would make closer study exceedingly difficult, were it not again for 

 the red thread which runs through it all, namely, the densely red 

 coloured quartz shales (3) which overlie the purple conglomerates and 

 quartzites (2) of the haimantas and divides the latter from the dark 

 bluish green limestones and shales with fossil traces, belonging to the 

 lower silurian Coral limestone division. 



The quartzites (2) of the haimantas rise in gigantic cliffs to over 

 20 000 feet and form the western spurs of the Nanda Devi peaks ; the 

 beds dip north-east by north, some 50 to 70 , and the boundary be- 

 tween them and the overlying silurians are seen near the foot of 



the glacier. 



In all the sections of the Painkanda district I found that the al- 

 ... <• ., r. • ways uniform red quartz shales (3), which ter- 



Silunans of the Pain- J ^ w " 



kanda sections. minate the haimanta system pass gradually, 



though most distinctly, into silicious shales of a light green colour, 

 apparently devoid of fossils, amongst which calcareous beds are inter- 

 calated higher up ; the latter contain traces of fossils. Some fifty 

 feet higher up the limestone beds predominate, and the series be- 

 comes simply a succession of limestone strata, amongst which 

 Coral limestone predominates. This division is marked 4 in the 

 sections. 



The silurian series is nowhere else better seen than along the 

 ( 100 ) 



