GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 239 



north and south of the Kashmir valley and in the upper basin of 

 the Chenab, and the other a wide tract some 300 miles long between 

 the Mahanadi and the lower reaches of the Grodavari. The former 

 was rather difficult ground ; the presence of carboniferous strata 

 had long since been observed, as well as the extensive occurrence 

 of eruptive rocks ; but the relations of all these to the preponderating 

 mass of contiguous unf ossiferous rocks had remained unknown. 

 Mr. Lydekker showed that the Kashmir area is a compressed 

 synclinal ellipse, on the pattern of the larger features defined by 

 Stoliczka in the Tibetan region, but containing, so far as observed, 

 no rocks younger than the trias. Regarding the obscure point of 

 the relations of the gneissic series, Mr. Lydekker's view was that the 

 Pir Panjal range is on the whole a great folded anticlinal flexure, 

 having a cone or axis of gneiss, the whole stratified series on the 

 outer (south-west) side being inverted. The Simla region, which 

 belongs to the broad area of lower mountains which east of the 

 Sutlej separates the snowy range from the plains, is made of 

 metamorphic and slaty rocks, in a very irregular and incompre- 

 hensible mode of distribution. This region was examined by 

 Colonel McMahon, himself an amateur geologist, and his paper is 

 published in the " Records." He shows that the massive gneiss 

 forming several prominent ridges on the lower mountains must be 

 the same as the central gneiss of the main range ; he describes the 

 upper members of the slate series to be so related to this gneiss as 

 to involve the total overlap of the lower part of the series, and 

 therefore complete unconformity to the gneiss, but subsequent 

 metamorphic action, largely affecting the slate series itself, has so 

 obscured the junction as to make the exact definition of it a matter 

 of great difficulty. 



The region between the Mahanadi and the Godavari is a wild, 

 hilly country, entirely occupied by primitive tribes and petty 

 tributary states. It proved (as indeed had been conjectured) to 

 be occupied by Vindhyan and gneissic rocks. On the coast side 

 there is a broad mountainous belt of crystalline rocks, with peaks 

 exceeding, in some cases, 5,000 feet in elevation. "West of this is 

 an extensive upland also largely formed of gneissic rocks, upon 

 which stand two or more scarped plateaux of flatly bedded sand- 

 stone, the principal being that of Nowagarh-Kharial. Further west 

 there is the wide expanse of lower ground formed of the shales, 

 limestone, and sandstones occupying the plains of Chattisgarh and 



