1867.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 33 



posed of acicular minute crystals of albite easily fusible before the 

 blow-pipe and pressed and entangled together ; there does not appear 

 to be any cement to bind the small crystals together ; the rock has a 

 coarsely saccharine aspect and can easily be crumbled between the 

 fingers. It rises in vertical and contorted bands, from half an inch to 

 two and a half feet thick, amongst sands and disintegrated shales. It 

 assumes very many remarkable colours, being sometimes flesh-coloured 

 or reddish, and at other places azure-blue ; its general colour is, how- 

 ever, snow-white ; where it is blue, the shales near it are of the same 

 colour. It is interbedded with thin beds of tufaceous limestone which 

 have probably found their way there by infiltration. It is covered in 

 "by a rubanneous and dark slate, much disturbed, extremely cleaved 

 and jointed and falling into small angular pieces. This slate appears 

 similar to that seen near Syad Kote, and the feldspathose rock is 

 intrusive. These two rocks are at the bottom of the ravine, on a 

 fault, and form a little mound by themselves. There are no rocks 

 to be seen in immediate relation to them, and the beds of the sides of 

 the ravine appear to be entirely nuinmulitic. 



From the examples given of volcanic rocks in Hazara, it seems? 

 evident that that district has participated in the great volcanic 

 accumulation which preceded the carboniferous epoch, and that it has 

 also been disturbed at a later date by intrusive volcanic action of a 

 local and geyserian character. 



71. Of Chumba, Kulu aud Kunawar, districts which occupy the 

 hilly tracts south of the extension of the Pir Punjal chain towards 

 the Sutlej, I know nothing. 



72. Kashmir is continued to the south-east by the highlands of 

 Lahul and Spiti which are situated in the same Himalayan parallel, 

 viz., between the Pir Punjal chain or parallel and that of the Ser 

 and Mer. Spiti has been pretty often visited by geologists, and we 

 know that carboniferous and Jurassic fossils were brought thence by 

 Dr. Gerard. Liassic fossils have also been found there. As for 

 crystalline rocks, M. Marcadieu mentions much granite, and Captain 

 W. E. Hay, granite penetrated by huge veins of ter-sulphuret of 

 antimony and " other metals." Gypsum is reported as extremely 

 abundant in Spiti, forming, it is said, whole mountains; and here I 



5 



