150 GRIESBACH: GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



Chapter VI. — Sections in the Bh6t Mahals of Kumaun. 

 The ground immediately south-east of the sections just described, 



Johar sections, belongs to the district of Johar, is mostly very 

 Physical difficulties. difficult, and there are tracts within it which 



are practically inaccessible. I will at once state here that I have only 

 been able to roughly reconnoitre the area of Johar, and had to con- 

 nect my boundary lines on the map the best way I could by identify- 

 ing the various rock-groups from afar off. That, however, is not such 

 a risky undertaking as would appear to those who are strangers to 

 Himalayan survey work. The hillsides are absolutely devoid of every 

 scrap of vegetation in those heights, from 16,000 feet upwards. And 

 where not obscured by snow or glacial debris, the principal rocks 

 may with ease be determined from afar off. The bright red band of 

 the upper haimantas (3), the duller red-brown of the red Crinoid 

 limestone (7), and the dazzling white quartzite (8) above it serve 

 as distinguishing landmarks which once fixed on the map enable 

 one to put in the rest with fairly satisfactory accuracy. 



The points which I was able to examine closely were the follow- 

 ing : — On the west side of the Johcir palaeozoic 



Sections surveyed. 



area, the neighbourhood of the Uja lirche 



glacier ; northwards the palaeozoic rocks of the Kurguthidhar, where 



they join the Shal-Shal sections. In the eastern portion of this 



ground I touched the palaeozoic rocks in the Girthi valley, following 



them near the boundary with the triassic system, and finally I crossed 



the entire palaeozoic group from the Uttardhura pass to Milam. 



With the exception of a small triangular remnant of carboniferous 



rocks south of the Kiangur peak connected with 

 Palaeozoic rocks. 



the Uttardhura synclinal, the main ground of the 

 palaeozoic rocks of Joh£r forms a belt of from 7 to 8 miles wide and 

 running due north-west to south-east. 



The boundary with the permo-trias group runs in approximately 

 the same direction, in a zig-zaging line from near the east slope of the 

 Kurguthidhar to the Uttardhura pass. Near this boundary the upper 

 carboniferous dips from 20 to 40 below the permo-trias, and within 



( 150 ) 



