90 Mr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2, 



on the physical geography of Little Thibet, and Dr. Thompson's work 

 on the same country ; neither have I had the benefit of Mr. Medlicott's 

 Memoir on the southern ranges of the Himalaya, between the rivers 

 Granges and Ravee, nor any of the other papers which have been 

 written on the Sub-Himalayan ranges. 



Of the geology of Kashmir especially, I believe that very little 

 indeed has ever been published, and that not even a geological horizon 

 has been discovered. Mr. Vigne and Dr. A. Fleming reported having 

 found in Kashmir " Nummulitic limestone disturbed and calcined by 

 greenstone ;" this was an error of some importance, as it gave a false 

 datum from which to fix the age and relations of the Azoic rocks. 

 Dr. A. Fleming, in his report on the Geological Structure of the Salt 

 Range, published in Selections from Public Correspondence of the 

 Punjab Administration, Vol. II., 1855, has the following passage : — 



" From Kashmir, too, Mr. Vigne obtained limestone containing 

 11 nummulites. This we have seen in situ on the side of a mountain 

 " at the upper end of the Manus Bal lake, where it is much disturbed 

 " and calcined by greenstone. It probably forms the summit of 

 " many of the higher hills on the northern side of the Kashmir valley, 

 " a district fraught with interest to the geologist and hitherto quite 

 " unexplored." 



, When I arrived at Srinuggur, Mr. Drew, who had visited Manus 

 Bal, showed me some specimens of the limestone of that locality, and 

 expressed a doubt about the markings seen on the rock being nummu- 

 lites ; he considered their markings to be the result of crystallisation 

 and weathering ; but I could not accept this view, and regarded 

 the little marks as indications of organisms. I was unwilling to 

 believe that Dr. A. Fleming could possibly have made a mistake 

 about nummulites, after the experience he had had of their appearances 

 in the Salt Range and the Bunnoo district ; and, as Mr. Drew ac- 

 knowledged that he was not familiar with the nummulitic formation, 

 and the specimens shown me were very bad and ill-preserved, indeed 

 merely faint marks in a coarse limestone, I temporarily admitted 

 Dr. Fleming's view. I was, at the time, unable to visit Manus Bal, 

 or to absent myself a single day from Srinuggur, owing to great 

 sickness amongst the visitors ; but I had the good luck to discover 

 abed of fossiliferous limestone and shales within a few miles of 



