1866.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 127 



and forming arches along the strike. This curvature of course falsi- 

 fies the dip on both flanks of the hill, the dip becoming northern on 

 the south eastern flank of the spur, and south east on the other 

 flank. 



The lowest portion of the spur forms a little mound on which may be 

 seen the remains of a gigantic Buddhist figure. The figure is that of 

 a woman, but it is now prostrate and headless. It is a huge block of 

 limestone. There are many other Buddhist remains at Pandrettan, 

 all built of that rock : amongst others, a small temple in a tank is 

 well worthy of a visit. 



From Pandrettan to Panchhooka, we have a succession of thick 

 beds of dark basalt, cleaved and jointed but never columnar, and 

 greenstone and amygdaloid, with a few beds of compact ash 

 containing oval nodules of augite. The basalt is the only rock 

 which has not been described before. It is best seen in a little spur 

 which descends to the Jheelum, hardly half a mile east of the 

 Buddhist figure on the little knoll. It has sometimes a very black 

 and conchoidal fracture, and at other times a pale pitch and bluish 

 colour. It breaks into prismatic blocks which are quarried at the 

 place where the spur hangs over the river. It does not appear 

 to be amygdaloidal, but the greenstone into which it passes is. 

 sparingly so, the geodes being large and filled with quartz. It is 

 difficult to ascertain the stratification or superposition, owing to the 

 well marked cleavages and joints, but by observing the beds of com- 

 pact ash occasionally met with, it is found to be easterly at a very 

 high angle with the horizon. All the way from the stone quarry, at 

 Alwajin, to that portion of the village of Panchhooka, designated on 

 the map as " Large Cheenar Trees," there is a succession of these beds, 

 but the angle of dip diminishes gradually as we travel eastwards and 

 is only 45° at Panchhooka. There we find the following beds : — 



A slaty basalt, dark and heavy, dipping to the E. a few degrees S. at an 

 angle of 45° with the horizon. It has a cleavage dipping dne W. with an angle 

 of 45°, and vertical joints striking S. W. — N. E. It is succeeded by a coarse 

 trap, a sort of trachyte showing a certain amount of crystallization, the 

 rock having a granitoid or rather gneissoid appearance. The augite and the 

 glassy felspar are the only minerals tolerably crystalline, the remainder 

 being a paste which is sometimes nearly white, or yellow and rough; 

 sometimes greenish-grey and conchoidal in fracture, or blue, indigo-blue and 



