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



So far, the rocks have been purely igneous. We now meet an 

 alternate succession of igneous rocks produced by the decomposi- 

 tion and arrangement under water of volcanic minerals. Ash, 

 agglomerate and other strata of volcanic eject a become also much 

 more abundant. 



9. A dark blue slate, in places clayey, in others calcareous, and effervescing 

 slowly and feebly with acids. It decays soon and forms a depression. It 

 contains no trace of organisms 15 ft. 



10. A lumpy brown rock composed of a coarse felspathic paste which 

 weathers chocolate-brown and contains a great number of lapilli, mostly black 

 and basaltic-looking. It shows thin, lenticular beds of pale grey felspathic 

 ash containing innumerable geodes, filled, some with quartz, some with dark 

 augite (?) This stratum is not very hard, and rounds by weathering, so that it 

 forms a smooth round boss and not a sharp saddle. It is about ... 30 ft. 



11. This bed is interesting and presents a very peculiar appearance. 



The rock is a pale grey trachyte in which crystals of dull white 

 alb'ite have imperfectly formed and arranged themselves in tufts 

 of imperfect crystals forming more or less a star or section, (see 

 fig. plate X.) When the rock is polished, (such as is seen in the 

 pavement of Srinagar where it is polished by people walking over 

 it*) the starry disposition of the crystals is evident enough, though 

 in the fresh broken specimen it is rather confused. The rock is « 

 passage between a trachyte and a felspathic porphyry. I have 

 never seen or read a description of this variety of volcanic rock, 

 and I therefore propose to call it " Soolimanite." On the north- 

 western flank of the hill, this bed of Soolimanite is better seen than 

 on the other side, and there presents some layers which show well the 

 nature of the rock. Some of these layers, rather darker than those 

 we have seen on the other side of the hill, contain the starry crystals 

 well developed in the centre of the beds only, whilst above and 

 below, that is near the lowest and uppermost parts of the beds, the 



* The stone is not abundant, and very few pieces of it are seen in the pave- 

 ment of Srinagar. I have seen two however, one in the vegetable market 

 near the great Musjid, and the other between the first bridge and the gate of 

 the Shere Ganie on the left bank of the Jheelum. 



