Vol. 56.] THE GEOLOGY OF GILG1T. 351 



At Nilt three beds of white saccharoidal limestone, or 

 marble, come in. ' The valley here/ Capt. Roberts writes, 'runs 

 almost down the line of strike [roughly east-and-west], and the dip 

 is about 70° or 80°. Two beds are seen in the cliffs on the north or 

 Hini side of the river (right bank) and one thick bed on the south 

 side. The latter is below the two Hini beds, and is separated by 

 the width of the valley — say | mile.' The beds are broad, well- 

 marked, and their course can be traced across the Minappin River, 

 striking towards the top of a mountain in Fakkar called by Sir 

 Martin Conway the ' Growling Peak.' 



The Nilt-Hini Limestones are white crystalline granular 

 limestones not distinguishable from the Gilgit-Nomal bed already 

 described. They are very pure; one, examined chemically, con- 

 tained a little over 73 per cent, of calcium carbonate, and a little 

 over 24 per cent, of magnesium carbonate. Another specimen 

 contains numerous liquid cavities with movable bubbles, probably 

 due to the contact-action of the neighbouring granite. 



Between the Minappin and Tashot, and for some miles up the 

 Minappin, a dark micaceous slaty rock occurs, and is succeeded 

 between Tashot and Askurdas Bridge (over the Hunza River) by 

 micaceous quartzose schists. All my samples contain two micas — 

 a biotite like that of the Hatu Pir Granite and a colourless mica. 

 Both are intergrown in such a way as to suggest contemporaneous 

 crystallization, and the microscopic evidence negatives the supposi- 

 tion that the colourless mica is blanched (decomposed) biotite. 

 One slice is very felspathic and also contains microscopic garnets, 

 magnetite, epidote, ferrite, and large flakes of muscovite. The 

 micas are bent, and exhibit undulose extinction. I think that the 

 slices represent a sheared vein of granite in a sheared 

 quartz-mica-schist. 



Erom Askurdas Bridge to Nagar a muscovite-granite comes 

 in, which I have described in the first part of this paper under the 

 name of the Askurdas Muscovite- Granite (p. 343). 



Baltit (Hunza of many maps), and the country around, is com- 

 posed of the Baltit Hornblende-Granite already described 

 (p. 340). At Baltit it is invaded by the Hatu Pir Granite, and 

 pierced by dykes and veins of it running in all directions. 

 Mispickel is found in the neighbourhood of Baltit, and o r pi- 

 rn ent and realgar seem to be plentiful in the Irshad and Gujhal 

 valleys. Arsenic is the favourite poison in Northern India, and the 

 Hindu Kush offers an abundant supply. Schorl and perfectly 

 pellucid rock-crystal are abundant at Hunza. 



At Altit l beds of highly crystalline white limestone, locally 

 termed stinks tones, come in. They have been bleached white, 

 rendered highly crystalline, and powerfully metamorphosed by the 

 contact-action of granite ; and to this action the presence of the 



1 Baltit (Hunza) is about 1| miles above the river. Altit is below Baltit on 

 the right bank of the Hunza river. The sketch-map (p. 344) is on too small 

 a scale to show both places. 



2b2 



