348 LIEUT.-GEN. C. A. MCMAHON ON [May I9OO, 



This rock consists mainly of massive black hornblende, with a 

 little labradorite. The latter is penetrated by fine canals, and is 

 remarkable for a peculiar arrangement of albite-twins which 

 does not follow the pericline law. 



(4) Ramghat to Gilgit. 



I have already mentioned that the Hatu Pir Granite (normal 

 variety) extends for some miles up to Ramghat on both the Astor 

 and the Chilas roads. At Ramghat itself a rock comes in that 

 might be called a quartz-diorite, but it is, I think, a slightly altered 

 variety of the Baltit Hornblende-Granite. My specimen contains 

 plagioclase (mainly oligoclase, but in part andesine), quartz, horn- 

 blende, magnetite, apatite, epidote, and allanite enclosed in epidote, 

 and chlorite after biotite. The occurrence of allanite is character- 

 istic of the Baltit Hornblende-Granite. In this specimen a general 

 parallelism is observable in the arrangement of the minerals, and 

 the felspars have been subjected to great crushing. 



Capt. Roberts remarks, on the section between Bunji and Gilgit, 

 that its i characteristics are the innumerable granite-dykes and 

 sheets that have intruded into the rocks, practically obliterating all 

 trace of bedding, and giving rise to that form of landscape peculiar 

 to granite — namely, rounded hill-tops with massive crags and well- 

 marked joints.' 



I am myself disposed to regard the rocks between Ramghat and 

 Gilgit as an igneous complex composed of several varieties 

 of granites. If it contains any rocks, or fragments of rock, which 

 had originally a sedimentary origin, they were probably carried into 

 position by the granites as included blocks, and have been altered 

 out of recognition. Of the specimens sent me all are, petrologically 

 considered, granites ; and among them I recognize the Hatu Pir 

 Granite, the Askurdas Muscovite-Granite, and the Baltit Hornblende- 

 Granite, the last-named, as usual, containing allanite. One labelled 

 ' schist ' is petrologically a fine-grained granite, in which biotite is 

 abnormally abundant. It contains orthoclase, plagioclase, quartz, 

 hornblende, sphene, apatite, epidote, and zoisite. It might be a 

 segregation in granite, but is more probably a portion of the Baltit 

 Hornblende-Granite (the oldest granite of the area) caught up and 

 metamorphosed by a later granite. 



(5) Gilgit to the Kilik Pass. 



The country around Gilgit is composed of a hornblende-plagio- 

 clase rock or diorite. This rock consists of a noncrystalline, 

 granular mixture of hornblende, epidote, and plagioclase-felspar, in 

 which hornblende slightly predominates. The last-named mineral 

 is pleochroic in shades of (a) brownish-yellow, (b) brownish-green, 

 and (c) bluish-green. The crystals are imperfectly-shaped prisms. 

 A little magnetite and haematite are also present. 



Blight incipient foliation has been set up in the rock. The diorite 



