84 Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2, 



volcanoes this mass is perhaps upheaved during their activity, but 

 what is upheaved above ground is certainly but a small proportion of 

 what remains underneath. This mass is covered by the materials 

 which have flowed out and have spread themselves on the surface, either 

 under the sea or in the open air. A great deal of this fluid material 

 does never reach the surface, but finds its way into the cracks and fis- 

 sures of the trachyte and porphyry. The portion which flows on the 

 surface, whether in the air or under water is a lava ; on the top of and 

 interbedded with the lavas, scoriae, ashes, cinders, dust, broken rocks 

 and mud, thrown into the air or into the sea by volcanic discharges, 

 are arranged in gentle slopes on the sides of the volcanoes and in flat 

 strata further off. Now, let us suppose that the volcanic activity 

 becomes dormant or ceases : we shall have under the spot where the 

 volcano once broke out, great masses of melted and metamorphosed 

 matter solidifying into various sorts of trappean rocks, while on the 

 surface, stratified and fossiliferous beds will be deposited on the top of 

 the lava and ashes. Should then the whole district be submitted to 

 an expansive force acting from within outwards, this force will be first 

 and most intensely felt by the great mass of underground porphyry 

 and trachyte, which will be forced up and break through what- 

 ever covers it ; the beds of basalt and amygdaloid through which it 

 is forced, will be displaced and thrown aside or on their flank, drag- 

 ging with them the stratified beds of cinders and fossiliferous strata. 

 If instead of one volcano, we have many, situated not very far 

 apart, we shall have the superficial rocks thrown into endless confusion 

 by the upheaval of the many masses of porphyry and trachyte, 

 which once formed their bases. The surging up of these masses 

 of crystalline rock will of course diminish very materially the space 

 occupied by the lavas, the cinders and the fossiliferous rocks at the [ 

 time of their deposition ; and these have therefore no other alternative ( 

 but to be broken in pieces, and these pieces to be raised more or less 

 towards a vertical position, according to the quantity of rocks to be I 

 packed in a given space. Thus, for example, near the Kaj Nag range, ' 

 we have vast deposits of felstone well hemmed in, on the south, by an | 

 enormous thickness of passive terfciaries. When the huge mass of | 

 porphyry of the centre of this system of mountains received its last 

 upheaval, it took possession of a great extent of ground formerly 



