34 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, ]No. 1 



would mention again that several hot springs are found in close 

 vicinity to these gypseous beds. 



But I must draw back here, and leave the ground to Dr. Stoliczka 

 who has been for some time studying the geology of Spiti with great 

 care and is preparing a work on the subject. Dr. Stoliczka has found 

 in Spiti rocks of the following ages : Silurian, Carboniferous, 

 Triassic (?), Liassic, Oolitic and Cretaceous. I have said before that 

 most of the fossils from Spiti represented in Dr. Boyle's Illustrations, 

 are to be found in the Jurassic rocks of Sheikh Bodeen. 



73. The great chain of Ser and Mer (called by Capt. B. Strachey, 

 between the Sutlej and the Kali, the chain of Snowy Peaks, and by 

 Cunningham, the western Himalaya or central chain of the Himalaya) 

 appears to be, as far as I have been able to ascertain, made up of 

 granite, gneiss, and other rocks of the plutonic and metamorphic 

 groups. From the Nanga Parbat (26,629 ft.) to near the Sojji La 

 pass, (11,300 ft.) the range is, I believe, mostly granite ; it is traversed 

 by the road of Skardo via G-uzais, and Mr. Drew informs me that the 

 range, (which here forms the southern boundary of the Deosai plain) 

 is " chiefly granite, partly schist." The plain of Deosai is a singular 

 plain or steppe entirely covered with debris and loose stones ; it is 

 tolerably flat, considering how it is situated, and has perhaps once 

 been the bed of a gigantic glacier. It is surrounded by granitic 

 mountains on the southern and western sides ; the north end is 

 bounded by mountains of schist and slate, and the eastern side is closed 

 in by granitic hills which gradually pass, over Drass and Kurgyl, into 

 volcanic rocks. 



If we cross the Ser and Mer chain by the Sojji La, from Kashmir 

 into Drass, we find near Baltal, a village on the Kashmir versant of j 

 the pass, that the carboniferous limestone ceases and is succeeded by 

 beds of very coarse and micaceous slaty shales, often very sandy and ' 

 always very thin-bedded. The specimens I possess of this rock show j 

 it to be identical with the sandstone and sandy coarse shales seen in i 

 the Zebawan and there interbedded with ash, agglomerate and slate. ; 

 This rock goes on to nearly the top of the pass, where it becomes a 

 dark and hard slate, having a metamorphic appearance. Then lime- 

 Itone reappears and is seen as far as Drass ; it rests the whole way, ! 

 as far as can be seen, on volcanic rocks and azoic slate. It is pro 



