PAINKANDA SECTIONS. 123 



belong to the Starhemberg facies of the Koessen beds ; but, on the 

 whole, I agree with Stoliczka that this horizon must be looked upon 

 as belonging to the lias, or as Stoliczka calls it, the Tagling limestone. 

 The beds dip some 40 to north-east, descending in great weather- 

 worn sheets down to the Shanki river, where they dip below the 

 Jurassic Spiti shales. They form the rugged ridge and highest points of 

 the Silakank range, where they are much disturbed by local crushing. 

 The section of the Niti from Kiunglung to the top of the pass 

 is therefore as follows, in descending order: — 



Numbers in Thickness 



Sections. in i jet. 



C Thick limestone beds with partings of 

 f Lias . .< oolitic structure ; fossil traces of liassic 



jg 1 L types . . . . . . . 250 



^Passage beds * Impure limestone with upper Koessen? 



v. rhaetic or lias. ' fossils chiefly brachiopods . . . ' 50 



S Limestone beds with fucoids • partings of 

 beds with Koessen fossils; higher up 

 strong dolomites with casts of Megalodon 

 v sp. ....... 500 



T , ,. C Dolomites in thick beds with limestone 



14 Lower rnsetic . s ,, 



(. nags . . . . . . . 1,500 



f ( Brown limestone beds with shaly partings . 800 



13 \ \ Black splintery limestone and dolomites 



< Upper trias .< with shaly partings .... 500 



J J Dark coloured flaggy limestone, with 



Daonella sp. ..... 200 



II Middle trias . ( Li f, ht ' f ?/ concretionary limestone, with 



( Muschelkalk fossils .... 



10 



< Lower trias and f Black shales, alternating with dark lime- 



60 



passage beds. ( stone, with Otoceras Woodwardi, etc. . 130 

 tj ■ ( Black shales, with Productus lati-rostratus 



pp r p n 1 Howse var. . .... 50 



Total thickness . 4,040 



The sections from the Niti pass in a north-easterly direction pass 

 From Niti to the over a succession of strata from the lias to post- 

 Sutle J* tertiaries. The deep ravines which the tribu- 



tary streams of the Sutlej have excavated afford admirable profiles. 



As I said before, the hard limestones and dark shales, which form the 

 uppermost strata overlying the upper rhaetic of the Niti pass, descend 

 in more or less broken and jointed masses, often deeply eroded, down 

 towards the north-east, dipping invariably below the black Spiti shales- 

 Two streams, the Shanki from the west, and the Sherik from the 

 south, drain the Niti and Silakank peaks on the northern slope, and 

 have excavated deep gorges (figs. 18 and 19) through the various 

 rocks through which they pass in succession. These streams run as 



( 123 ) • 



