PAINKANDA SECTIONS. 149 



surface of the quartzite, but I could not get them out of the rock ex- 

 cept in fragments. 



North-east of this section, about 15 miles from the gorge of the 



Shal-Shal stream, a normal fault of very insigni- 

 North-eastof Shai-Shal. , , c . . . . 



ficant throw has brought down the bpiti shales to 



the level of the upper rhaetic, from whence the section is repeated. 

 From the top of this second cliff great sheets of the liassic beds dip 

 30° north-east below the Jurassic Spiti shales, which contrast strongly 

 with the underlying greyish-brown limestones. 'I he Spiti shales form 

 gently undulating grassy slopes, washed by numerous small streams 

 and springs which rise in the ridge of the watershed some 3 to 

 4 miles north-east of Shal-Shal. These streams generally expose 

 good sections of the Jurassic shales, which yield the common Spiti 

 fauna. 



The dividing ridge is capped by greenish-grey sandstones, and 

 Cretaceous of the earthy beds of precisely similar lithological 

 Balchdhura watershed. character as the cretaceous group seen near the 

 Sirkia river in Hundes. They form steep cliffs along the whole water- 

 shed from east of the Silakank river to the Balchdhura pass, where 

 they are seen to strike far towards the south-east. Their thickness 

 cannot be less than from 1,200 to 1,500 feet. I found no fossils in 

 the greenish sandstones, but was lucky enough to observe further to 

 the south-east in the pass of Balchdhura a massive, almost crystalline 

 white limestone overlying these sandstones conformably, which 

 yielded many fossils which, although limited in species, yet prove the 

 rock to be upper cretaceous (see chapter IV, p. 80) ; one may there- 

 fore assume that the greenish-grey sandstone represents the entire 

 neocomian and lower cretaceous series. The Shal-Shal pass (16,390') 

 itself comes down to the level of the black Spiti shales. On each 

 side the precipitous cliffs of the cretaceous group rise, and in profile 

 show numerous minor flexures, although the beds finally dip below the 

 highly altered Nummulitic strata of Hundes. Near Shal-Shal, as 

 already shown, the cretaceous forms a shallow synclinal, and the beds 

 dip about 20 inwards. . • 



( 149 ) 



