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



ably flat, only a small volcanic peak rising here and there, detached 

 and isolated, through the thick horizontal bone- beds of sandstone and 

 conglomerate which till up the valley.* But in the other districts, 

 the trough is nearly entirely filled up by vast mountains, which 

 occupy in the parallel valley of Ladak the same position as the 

 catenated chains we have described in Kashmir do in the parallel 

 valley of Kashmir ; the chain formed by these mountains has been 

 called by Colonel Cunningham the'* Tso Moreri" chain, and has been 

 raised to the position of one of the great parallel chains of the Hima- 

 laya, but it will best suit our purpose to consider it as an inter- 

 parallel mass of mountains. 



Deosai has been described already. Drass and Kurghyl are covered 

 with volcanic rocks into which the granite of Deosai gradually passes. 

 Mr. Drew tells me that he found near Kurgyl a rock composed ex- 

 clusively of mica and felspar, graduating into granite. Some 

 specimens I possess from Tashgam, half way between Drass and 

 Kurgyl, are composed of a dark green hornblende which fuses with 

 difficulty and swelling a little before the blow-pipe. Felspar is not 

 conspicuous, but is probably intimately combined with the horn- 

 blende. But rocks undoubtedly volcanic are also seen, such as green- 

 stone and amygdaloid. A considerable bed of limestone reposes on 

 the volcanic rocks and appears to be the continuation of the bed seen 

 near Drass. I do not know the age of this limestone. The Drass 

 bed contains fossils which are, I believe, carboniferous, and I have* 

 coloured the bed now under consideration, carboniferous, assuming 

 the continuity of the two beds to be true. 



Of the mass of hills traversed by the road from Kurgyl to Le 

 I know very little indeed. They are said to consist mostly of slaty- 

 rocks capped here and there by conglomerates and grits. 



As we near the valley of the Indus in Ladak proper, near the- 

 village Kulsi, interesting beds appear. Resting on a hornblende rock 

 or trap is a series of slate, light coloured limestone, conglomerate 

 with rolled boulders of the same limestone, sandstone, shales and 

 dark purple indicated clays. The dip is not very great and the 

 several beds appear to conform together. The whole valley of the 



* Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, page 306. 



