194 GRIESBACH: GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



Chapter VII. — Notes on the Central Himalayas between 



the Kamet and Spiti. 



The survey of the Bhot mahals of Garhwal and Kumaun concluded 

 my detailed work in the Himalayas, the result of several seasons' 

 wanderings amongst these mountain masses. The work is laid down 

 on Map No. I which accompanies this Memoir. But as I was 

 desirous of effecting a junction with Stoliczka's early work in Spiti, I 

 proceeded to reconnoitre the ground between Niti and that area, 

 the result of which study will be described in the following pages and 

 is recorded on Map No. 2 of this report. 



/. Crystalline rocks and haimantas between Niti and Bisaihr. 



The great mountain mass of the Kamet (25,443') already alluded 

 to in my description of the Niti gneiss, continues westwards to 

 the Gangotri peaks and to the mountain masses beyond it. From 

 it the immense glaciers of the M£na and Gangotri peaks descend 

 down to the head- waters of the Sarsuti and Bhagirathi branches of the 

 Ganges system; they help to. make this mountain region one of the 

 most inaccessible areas of the Central Himalayas. 



As my task did not so much consist in an exploration of these 

 snowy regions but rather to study the succession of the sedimentary 

 rocks north of the central range, I had to content myself with a 

 mere reconnaissance of the belt of metamorphic rocks and their 

 boundary w r ith the overlying older palaeozoic systems. 



I have not been able to settle satisfactorily in what relation the 

 Boundaries of the haimanta system stands to the underlying crys- 

 haimantas. talline rocks in the area north-west of the Kamet 



masses. Two points, however, are quite clear ; first, that the upper 

 boundary of the haimantas is a natural one, this system being overlaid 

 conformably by, and passing into, the lower silurians ; and secondly, 

 that the boundary between the crystalline rocks and the haimanta 

 system is obscured by intrusive granite, which is here developed on 

 ( 194 ) 



