1867.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 95 



chain, and which is continued far towards the S. E., forming numerous 

 and considerable volcanic mountains which appear as islands and 

 promontories above the flat plain of the great Thibet plateau, through 

 which the Sutlej runs. 



These lines or fissures had a direction N. "W. — S. E. and were 

 all parallel, but the activity of the volcanoes was not the same 

 on all the lines or in different parts of each line. Thus, in the line of 

 Kaj-Nag and Badrawar, Chor and Dodatoli, the north-western end of 

 the line is eminently distinguished and marked by very numerous and 

 very long volcanoes, whilst the eastern one only gave passage to a few 

 vents separated from each other by considerable intervals. On the 

 other hand, (on another line) in Ladak, the volcanoes appear to have 

 been small and few, whilst the eastern ends of the fissures appear to 

 have been marked with many volcanoes of great size and activity. 

 No volcanoes appear to have existed in that portion of the Silurian 

 sea, where we now have the high mountains of Kailas and Karokoram ; 

 but where the Kuen Luen chain was at a later age to appear, it 

 seems, that one or two lines of linear volcanoes did exist at the begin- 

 ning of the Paheozoic epoch. 



How long, how many thousands of years these volcanoes kept at 

 their work, it is impossible even to guess. Their activity was immense, 

 and it appears that in the waters which bathed the shores of the volcanic 

 archipelago, too many outlets kept continually pouring out hot cjecta 

 and noxious vapours to have allowed life to be present. We have seen 

 that there is considerable evidence of the sea-bottom having been 

 frequently heated enough to become cellular and amygdaloidal, and a 

 reference to the section of the Tukt-i Suliman in Kashmir will, T think, 

 leave little doubt of the frequency, the violence and the abundance 

 of the discharges of lava, of lapilli, of ashes, and of hot liquid mud. 

 We therefore find no Silurian fossils in Kashmir, and the slates and 

 sandstones which are interbedded with the volcanic ejecta are complete- 

 ly deprived of fossils. This want of organic life did not, however, 

 affect those portions of the sea which were sufficiently distant from the 

 subaqueous craters and volcanic islands to escape the destructive effects 

 of ejected materials ; and we find, therefore, in the Karokoram chain 

 and also in the Himalaya, between the Sutlej and the Kali, large beds 

 of Silurian rocks with the usual fossils. These rocks are, as we have 



