270 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



full and valuable sketch of the geology of Afghan Turkistan appears 

 in Part 4 of the same volume. The fourth or concluding batch of 

 notes treats of the return march of the Commission from Turkistan 

 over the Hindu Kush and through Kabul to India. 



In the little known region of Gilgit, Astor, and Baltistan, and the 

 country beyond, the observations made by Dr. G. M. Giles, though 

 not those of a professed geologist, supplied some valuable informa- 

 tion about a large area from the Pamir through "Wakhan and 

 eastern Badakhshan across the Hindu Kush at its supposed roots, 

 and back through Chitral and Yasin. The whole of the large area 

 presented apparently an extension of the conditions known in 

 Baltistan ; no trace of a fossiliferous rock was seen ; crystalline and 

 schistose rocks greatly preponderated, with only a few less altered 

 slaty specimens. Throughout the eastern and central part of the 

 area an east-west strike was very constant, while on the west side, 

 i.e., on what is represented as the axis of the Hindu Kush, the 

 prevailing strike of the rocks was north to south, though often 

 irregular. There remains a belt of unknown ground (over 150 miles) 

 between Charikar and Chitral to which peculiar interest attaches, 

 both from a geological and geographical point of view. 



Several parts of the " Paireontologia Indica" came to a natural 

 close with the end of the year, Mr. Lydekker, who has earned much 

 reputation in that branch, having pretty well cleared off all the fossil 

 vertebrata, though of course further collections have since been made. 

 AVith the fasciculus on the Echinoidea of the Makran series of the 

 Baluchistan and Persian Gulf coasts Professor P. Martin Duncan 

 completed a portly volume, forming Vol. I. of Series XIV., the 

 " Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous Fauna of Western India." Dr. 

 Waagen made good progress with his important volume on the fossils 

 of the productus-limestone of the Salt range, one part (the 

 Coelenterata) being issued in 1886. 



The year 1887 was marked by the retirement, on the 27th of 

 April, of Mr. H. B. Medlicott, M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S., after a con- 

 tinuous service of over 30 years in India. Mr. Medlicott became 

 Superintendent (a title afterwards altered to Director) after the 

 retirement of the late Dr. T. Oldham in 1876, and the admirable and 

 efficient manner in which he conducted the responsible duties of the 

 Department is amply borne out by the official records of the Survey. 

 In collaboration with Mr. AY. T. Blanford, then Senior Deputy 

 Superintendent, he produced the first and second parts of the 



