KAMET AND SPITI. 209 



mesozoic groups, up to the upper rhaetic system ; it is an ascending sec- 

 tion, and for the sake of convenience I will describe it in this order. 



The range over which the Babeh Pass leads (see map No. 2 and 



pi. 1) consists chiefly of crystalline rocks ; thick- 

 bedded gneiss (central gneiss of Stoliczka) asso- 

 ciated with schists are the prevailing types of rock, but they are traver- 

 sed by intrusive granite, and the boundary between the crystallines and 

 the overlying sedimentary system is greatly obscured by masses of gra- 

 nite which have been wedged into that region. The boundary is there- 

 fore anything but clear at that point, especially as, in addition to the 

 latter, much of the ground accessible to travellers is completely 

 covered by snow and the ice masses of the Babeh glacier with its 

 branches. The glacier is much cut up by crevasses and offers con- 

 siderable difficulties in crossing later than July or August ; but it is 

 very probable that the granite will be found to enter the overlying 

 formation much in the same manner as is seen in the sections north- 

 east and east of Spiti. 



Stoliczka believed that the slates (Babeh series) rest unconformably 

 on the crystallines below; this does not seem to me to be the case ; on 

 the contrary, a gradual passage appears to exist and the general dip 

 and strike being practically the same, I must conclude that here as 

 in other sections the slate series is conformable to the metamorphics. 



Babeh series, Stol. = Azoic, Strachey = Cambrian, Griesbach = 



and haimanta system. — Between the metamor- 



Haimanta system. . 



phic rocks south of the Babeh Pass and the lower 

 silurian exposed near Buldur (of the map), a strongly-developed system 

 of rocks is seen, which I have identified with pre-silurian rocks of 

 the Central Himalayas, called by General R. Strachey 1 Azoic series. 

 The beds composing this system are conformably overlaid by the 

 lower silurian ; the general lithological sequence is almost identically 

 the same as that of the haimantas in the sections further east, and 

 the system may therefore safely be identified with the haimantas of 



Q. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. VII, p. 292. 

 P ( 209 ) 



