KAMET AND SPITI. I97 



intercalated. Numerous intrusions and bosses of hornblendic gra- 

 nite are found both in the grey gneiss and the schistose beds of 

 Jalah ; I found they increased in frequency and importance as I 

 neared Derali (east), and about a mile north of that place the 

 finely crystalline grey gneiss, and beds of hornblendic schist, are in 

 Hornblendic granite abrupt contact with hornblendic (albite) granite, 

 intrusions. j. ne same roc ] Jj which forms the main mass of 



the great peaks east of it, namely, the Gangotri and Kedarnith heights. 

 On the right side of the valley the boundary between these rocks is 

 plainly visible ; the gneiss dips north to north-east as before, and the 

 granite forms a solid unstratified mass abutting against the former. 

 I found numerous lumps and fragments, often of very large size, of 

 grey gneiss and hornblendic rock included in the granite near the 

 contact of the latter with the metamorphic schists. 



Between Nilang, and a mile west of Jangla, the Bhagirathi with its 

 Gorge of Bhagirathi lar g e tributary, the JaMh Ganga, has eroded a 

 in granite. deep gorge through the great granite mass which, 



as I have already shown, stretches from the Kedarnath heights in a 

 north-west direction towards Nilang. The gorge is one of the most 

 remarkable ones in the Central Himalayas, and for picturesqueness 

 can hardly be surpassed by any valley in the world. Its sides are 

 often absolutely vertical, smoothed down by the torrent, which rushes 

 six hundred and more feet down below, through a narrow slit in the 

 rock. At the narrowest and most picturesque spot (Bhaironghati) a 

 wire suspension bridge spans the gorge, which affords a means of 

 reaching the Gangotri temple and glacier. This bridge has been 

 erected by a forest officer, and is, perhaps, one of the best examples of 

 amateur engineering in existence. 



From that point the granite mass extends far to the east, — in fact is 



continuous with the Kedanath and M£na mass • 



Continuous with . t ' 



Kedarnath and Mana but some few miles (six to eight) north of the 



Bhagirathi valley I found the rock changed to 

 semi-metamorphic schists, quartzites, and slates, which probably be- 

 long to the same formation as the schists which overlie the gneiss of 



( 197 ) 



