10 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 1, 



between the Kailas and Korakoram chains is a plateau nearly 15,000 

 feet high. It is probable that on the other side of the Korakoram 

 chain the elevation diminishes and that the Aksai chain and the valley 

 of the Yarkandkash river, between the Korakoram and Kuen-Luen 

 chains, are about 10,000 feet high ; beyond the Kuen-Luen is the 

 province of Kotan which has been satisfactorily determined by its 

 vegetation to be no more than 5000 feet high. 



We have therefore a series of steps rising from the plains of the 

 Punjab to the high plateau of Little Thibet, and descending from 

 Little Thibet towards Turkish China. These steps are supported 

 by parallel chains or walls which tower by some thousands of feet above 

 the plateaux which they support. These chains offer a considerable 

 impediment to the flow of rivers towards the plains, and most rivers 

 have a considerable course parallel to the direction of the chains, 

 before they can find a gap to pass through. 



The Afghan mountains present the same arrangement as the Hima- 

 layas; the direction is from the N. E.to S. W. the direction of parallel 

 chains is less well marked than in the Himalaya, but this is probably 

 due to the little which is correctly known of the topography of 

 these mountains. The plateaux are similarly graduating : Bunnoo 

 being about 1200 feet above the see, Kabul 7000 feet, Kafriristan 

 higher, whilst the plateau of Koonduz, on the other side of the Hin- 

 doo Koosh, slopes gradually towards the west. This arrangement by 

 plateaux is the same as is seen in the Andes with their high central 

 chain and their plateau between that chain and the Cordilleras. 



From the hypothesis, advanced in the next chapter, of the manner 

 the Himalayan and Afghan mountains were upheaved, we will deduct 

 which of the lower hills belong to the Afghan and which to the 

 Himalayan mass, and I will therefore not discuss this subject here, as it 

 would but lead to useless repetitions. I shall begin with the hills 

 which one first meets crossing out of the alluvial plain of the Punjab, 

 as he travels north from Mooltan ; and I shall take the parallel regions 

 of the Himalaya one after the other, noticing as I go on whatever 

 little I know of the geology of the Afghan mountains in the same 

 latitude. 



60. In latitude 32° 10', longitude 70° 50' to 71° 20' rises the 

 double chain of the Kafir Kote range or Rotta Roh and the Sheikh 



