114 



Dr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir^ 



[No. 2, 



Munee Range.* On this lake floated the icebergs brought down by 

 the rivers, drifting gradually to the south, and finally grounding near the 

 Salt-Range or averted by it. Thus we see between Jubbee and Nikkee 

 large erratic blocks, being porphyry, resting on the top of the old alluvi- 

 um ; and we find similar but smaller blocks imbedded in horizontal taluses 

 of debris which have been piled up in horizontal layers against the hills 

 of Maree on the Indus. These blocks are not water- worn, but present 

 either flattened or scratched surfaces ; the ground all over that 

 district is covered with boulders of porphyry, greenstone, felstone, &c. 

 but these boulders are well rounded and are easily traced to dis- 

 integrated beds of Miocene conglomerate. The erratic blocks are very 

 different in appearance, and have the striking, or somewhat odd and 

 deplace aspect peculiar to erratics. One of them, three miles south 

 of the village of Thrapp, measures 6 feet 4 inches by 7 feet 4 inches 

 and 5 feet. There are four or five smaller blocks near it, but none 

 ars rolled ; they are all of the gneissoid porphyry of the Kaj-Nag. 

 The largest presents the very singular appearance of having its 

 greatest flat surface (not vertical) marked with a number of cup-like 

 holes of various size, from 6 inches across to the size of a walnut, and 

 from 1J to 2 inches deep. There are from 70 to 75 of these cups. 

 They resemble wide rounded holes or cups, as water would make by 

 dropping. Whether these cups are a glacial effect, or have been made 

 by a race of men for some unknown purpose, is, what I am unable to 

 decide. I am inclined to the first hypothesis. 



100. 



Erratic blocks near Thrapp. 

 The oldest indications of Man having become an inhabitant 



* The damming of the water behind the Salt Eange and the Chitta Rang 6 

 was the cause of that thick deposit of silty mud now cut by ravines, which ha s 

 been the source of so much difficulty and expense in making the great Trunk 

 Road between Jheelum and Attok. A similar damming occurred in the Huneepor 

 valley and several other localities, but to a less degree. 



