196 Mr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 3', 



derful twists and foldings, but appear less altered than the beds which 

 are bathed by the lake ; their fossils are better preserved. I have 

 not ascended these spurs, but amongst the ehoulis, I saw many- 

 fossils characteristic of the Weean limestone, amongst others large 

 Aviculo-pectens and Anthracosice, of which sections only had been 

 discovered in the rocks in situ. 



Some blocks of limestone were also found exhibiting Gastero- 

 poda, so conspicuous in the Kothair bed, and it is therefore evident 

 that this bed forms the uppermost layers of the limestone of the 

 higher spurs. I need hardly say, that the beds of Manus Bal belong 

 to the Weean group, and that they have been folded and altered in part 

 by volcanic action, subsequent to the formation of the volcanic rocks 

 on which they rest. The order of the beds is from the anticlinal 

 upwards on both sides of it, and the rocks nearest to the trap are the 

 most superficial, excepting, however, the detached beds which are 

 conformable to the volcanic rocks on the northern side of the great 

 fault. If the limestone had been baked by the amgydaloid and the 

 greenstone, we would naturally expect to find the beds nearest to 

 these rocks most altered ; the reverse is however the case ; and we 

 must therefore admit that a burst of hot gases or hot water had taken 

 place at the time these limestones were still a soft and plastic mud, and 

 that it upheaved, folded and metamorphosed them. 



It must not be forgotten, that the limestone might have been much 

 less folded by this first disturbing action than we see it now, when ' 

 the last upheaval of the Himalaya took place : the beds then slightly 

 folded would naturally give way in the same direction as they were 

 already bent, especially if the space they occupied between two un- 

 yielding trappean hills had become so restricted that the limestone 

 must of necessity either be folded or override the trap. On the appli- 

 cation of such lateral pressure, a straight, flat, hard bed might have 

 glided over the trap, but a bed already undulating would more natu- 

 rally give way at the weakest parts, viz. the angles of the undulations, 

 and thus become gathered in crumpling folds. Such folds are well 

 shown in the Sketch- Section, (plate F). 



55. Having terminated our examination of the several moun- 

 tains which form the first catenated chain on the N. E. of the valley 

 of Kashmir, Ave can now understand how this chain was once conti- 



