1866.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 113 



regularity and evenness of the stratification of these cinder beds 

 renders it highly probable that the showers of ejecta fell in a shallow 

 sea in which the volcanoes formed islands. It appears to rne, that we 

 cannot refuse to admit that the porphyry was the base of the vol- 

 canoes, and indeed the matter which failed to escape through the 

 vent in the earth's crust, whilst the felstone or clinkstone and varieties 

 of trachytic rocks into which the porphyry always passes, are lavas 

 which have flowed under the pressure of the sea. If these views 

 are admitted, we have a series of volcanoes beginning at the Kaj Nag, 

 and forming an arc along the north-east boundary of the valley of 

 Kashmir, clown again to the mountains of Badrawar : of this arc of 

 volcanoes the Pir Punjal chain is the chord. Can we wonder, huge 

 though the chain is, at its being in a great measure formed by ejecta 

 of volcanoes received in a sea gulf and there arranged in conformable 

 layers ? The slate, as we shall see in the next chapter, was formed 

 during the intervals of volcanic activity, and it is not improbable that 

 the continual shower of ashes and hot stones into a shallow bay kept 

 the water at a temperature too high for the development of animal 

 or vegetable life. 



Since writing the above paragraph, Capt. G. Austen has informed 

 me that beds of unmistakably volcanic rocks, such as amgydaloid 

 and coarse greenstone, are interbedded with the slate and other rocks 

 of the Pir Punjal. This is precisely what occurs in the hills north 

 of the valley of Kashmir, we may therefore regard the Pir Punjal 

 as a mass of volcanic ejecta interbedded with slate which was 

 deposited during the periods of volcanic tranquillity. 



Chapter II. — The Mountains North and North-East of Kashmir. 



17. By referring to the map, we observe that the Kashmir valley 

 is an elongated trough with its longer axis directed S. E. — N. W. The 

 Jheelum has a similar general direction, as far as the Woolar Lake, 

 and the smaller stream which drains the north-western end of the 

 valley flows from the N. W. to the S. E. To the north-east of 

 this axis, we notice long spurs of hills which descend to the water- 



