4G 



IIAYDFN : (iKOIjOCY OF NORTnERN AFGHANISTAN. 



to belong to the Upper Siwaliks. Near Tangi Tarakki, the Kabul road 

 skirts the high hill shown on our maps as " Khurd Kabul" (11,143 feet). 

 The base of this consists of gneiss, schist and intrusive basic igneous 

 rocks, which dip at high angles to the south-west, and are overlain 

 with marked unconformity by the limestones of the Khingil series. 

 The intrusive igneous rocks are apparently confined to the crystalline 

 series and have not been found to extend up into the overlying lime- 

 stones. The road to Kabul via Butkhak skirts the southern and western 

 sides of this hill, and affords a fine view of the striking unconformity. 

 At the northern end of the gorge known as the Khurd Kabul pass, 

 the crystalline rocks give place to Upper Tertiary beds, and at Butkhak 

 the road joins the Lataband- Kabul track. 



Koh i Daman and Ghorband. 



The hills separating Kabul from the broad valley of Koh-i-Daman 

 consist of the gneisses and schists of the crystalline series. To the 

 north of Kabul, the chaman is skirted on its further side by a ridge 

 of the same series ; where the road crosses the Paimunar Kotal, 

 the rocks exposed are gneissose granite with pegmatite and dykes of 

 basalt. These are found again in the hills to the north of Kala-i-Haji 

 and along the range running from south to north along the eastern side 

 of the Istalif valley, where they are associated with mica-schist. The 

 western flanks of the same range are covered with soft sand and pebble- 

 beds, which may represent the Siwaliks, but are softer and less coherent 

 than the beds of that series in other localities. 



At the northern end of the Koh-i-Daman, the Paghman range merges 

 Parwan and * n ^° ^he Hindu Kush, and the gneissose granite 



Jabl=us=Siraj. 0 f ^ e f ormer becomes replaced by the limestone, 

 hematite and graphitic slates of the Kalu and Hajigak series. Behind 

 Jabl-us-SiraVj, and to the north of the Salang river, the hills are formed 

 of hematite and a reddish, probably dolomitic, limestone. The hema- 

 tite occurs partly as a bed of soft earthy material with masses of mica- 

 ceous iron-ore. Behind the outer ridge harder masses of the hematite 

 are found embedded in the limestone, which is quite crystalline and of 



