PAINKANDA SECTIONS. 135 



Much more instructive are the sections across 

 the Shal-Shal valley further to the south-east. 



As already observed, the Shal-Shal stream has eroded a deep 

 gorge more or less along the strike of an anticlinal which is chiefly 

 formed by trias and rhaetic beds, followed on the eastern flank by 

 younger mesozoic strata, and bounded on the west side by the great 

 Painkanda fault. This anticlinal runs first to south-east near the 

 upper course of the Shal-Shal gorge, gradually turns south and merges 

 into the great dome-shaped mass of the Kurguthidhdr, which is chiefly 

 composed of the upper carboniferous white quartzite (8). The 

 Painkanda fault cuts through this anticlinal and produces some 

 crushing and local disturbance. But from the rise of the Shal-Shal 

 stream to about four miles below Rimkin Paiar encamping ground, 

 the stream has eroded through nearly the centre of the anticlinal arch 

 and exposes in turns not only all the beds of the rhaetic and trias, but 

 also the upper and middle carboniferous, which are seen in parallel 

 bands on each side of the valley, where they form precipitous 

 but not altogether inaccessible cliffs. It is impossible to avoid the 

 conclusion that the stream runs now in an eroded and widened fis- 

 sure, caused along the axis of the anticlinal, along the line of greatest 

 tension. 



Section 3 of pi. 3 further illustrates the structure of the Shal-Shal 

 valley. The Painkanda fault interrupts the continuity of the palaeo- 

 zoic section of the Ch6r H6ti ridge of peaks, and the down-throw to 

 the north-east brings the rhaetic beds of the Shal-Shal valley in 

 immediate contact with the former. This feature is exceedingly well 

 seen in a rocky ravine about a mile west of Rimkin Paiar, on both 

 sides of which the structure is laid bare and the rhaetic beds may be 

 seen crushed against the fault line. In slipping down along an 

 inclined plane the mesozoic strata had to accommodate themselves to a 

 narrow trough, and thus were squeezed into an arched anticlinal, which 

 possibly opening in a straight fissure along its ridge, gave first rise to 

 the straight-running Shal-Shal stream, which afterwards eroded a 

 deep gorge in place of the fissure. The down-throw is accompanied 



( '35 ) 



