1867. J the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 85 



covered by the felstone ; and this in its turn did its best to push the 

 tertiaries further south, but this it only partially succeeded in doing ; 

 and as there was much felstone and little room for it, the bed broke 

 into pieces and these pieces became packed edgeways. 



82. Granite may be considered as the solidified matter of a volcano 

 seated so far from the surface of the earth, that it never broke through 

 its covering while the minerals were in a fluid or viscid state. It is 

 the remains of a " blind volcano." Humboldt has described volcanic 

 action, " the reaction of the interior of the earth on the external crust." 

 This crust has to be broken through to allow of the escape of some of 

 the internal matter; where the earth's crust resists the upward 

 pressure, no crater is formed, no true volcano appears ; but the melted 

 matter remains imprisoned under the crust, and there gradually 

 solidifies under great pressure. The solidification will necessarily be 

 made more slow at a great depth, than it would be near the surface 

 and near a rent which allows of the evaporation of the intermolecular 

 water to take place ; and it is the slowness of the cooling, the 

 pressure sustained during the period of cooling, and the retention of 

 intermolecular water and gases which cause the melted minerals to 

 crystallise as granite and not as porphyry, greenstone or basalt. 



83. In regard to their geographical disposition, volcanoes can be 

 classified into " central" and " linear." The " central" are those which 

 arise by themselves and appear not to be connected with any other 

 volcano; the "linear" are several outlets arranged along a probable 

 fissure in the earth's crust, and the fissure is often parallel to one or 

 many other fissures similarly indicated by a line of volcanoes ; or 

 two fissures may cut one another obliquely, as we see in the Lipari 

 Islands. 



84. Applying the above general remarks to the volcanic rocks of 

 Cashmir, we first notice that previous to the carboniferous epoch, there 

 existed linear volcanoes arranged in a direction parallel to the 

 present general direction of the Himalaya, viz. N. W. and S. E. ; these 

 volcanoes are now represented by the summits of Kaj-Nag and of the 

 Kistwar and Badrawar and the peaks of the catenated chains of Cash- 

 mir. These volcanoes vary much in importance, but no doubt can 

 be entertained of their general great activity, if we remember the 

 enormous amount of ejecta which they have thrown out. The well 



