a eee See ee ee ere 
1884.] Geology and Paleontology. 409 
extreme. Mr. McNair is the first Englishman who has penetrated 
into Kafiristan, and even he, owing to the penetration of his dis- 
guise through the treachery of a supposed friend of the British 
government, did not go beyond the outskirts. 
The Swat valley, reached by the Malakand pass (3575 feet), has 
avery rich soil, but is unhealthy. In it are many Buddhist topes, 
some quite as large as the famous tope of Muni Kiyala. There 
are also many excavated caves. Colonel Yule (in the discussion 
which followed Mr. McNair’s narrative) stated that this valley, 
the natives of which had become Afghanized, was eighteen to 
twenty centuries ago one of the most sacred spots of Buddhism. 
At Dir Mr. McNair received a seal, which proved to be of Baby- 
lonian workmanship. 
he Kafirs are ever at war with their Mohammedan neighbors, 
and are said to pray: “ Ward off fever from us. Increase our 
Stores. Kill the Mussulmans. After death admit us to Paradise.” 
Yet many have been, during the course of ages, converted to 
Islamism. Sir H, Rawlinson said that there was no foundation 
for the belief that these Kafirs or infidels, as the Pathans called 
em, were descended from Alexander’s soldiers. Their lan- 
guages are of the Perso-Indian branch of the Aryan family. 
he pass leading from Swat valley is 7310 feet above the sea ; 
the fort of Dir 5650 feet; the Lowara Kotal pass, leading to the 
valley of the Kunar, 10,450 feet; and Chitral, at the head of the 
Shushai valley, 5151 feet. The dorsal ridge of the Hindu Kush 
here a mean elevation of about’16,000 feet, while the Tirach Tir 
mountain is 25,426 feet high. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY. 
T. S. Hoyt on CAMBRIAN ROCKS OF NortH AmeErica.—The 
e 
rome of the Silurian, and by others called Cambro-Silurian, 
Prefers the term Ordovician, now accepted by many British and 
: Treental geologists. This includes in New York the Chazy, 
ton, Utica and Loraine divisions, the Oneida marking the 
: Nap urian or third fauna. The Cambrian rocks of the great 
i The american basin may be studied in four typical areas : 
4 The Appalachian ; 2. The Adirondack; 3. The Mississippi; 
Cordillera area. To the first of these belongs the im- 
7 fae ome of greatly disturbed sediments along the whole 
Tn border of the basin constitutin i cke and 
< ‘ ; g the First graywacke a 
= Sparry limerock of Eaton, being the Upper Taconic of Em- 
» and the Potsdam group and Quebec group of Logan. 
1 Abst 
Read before Boston Soc. Nat. History, Feb. 20, 1884. 
