48 



HAYDEN : GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN. 



hematite and associated limestone — overlain by limestone, often 

 crystalline, quartzite, schist and slate. For some seven or eight 

 miles up the Kaoshan valley opposite Burj-i-Gul Jan, nothing else is 

 seen; I was unable to reach the cre-it of the range, but it is almost 

 certainly composed of granite. The sedimentary rocks are highly me- 

 tamorphosed and suggestive of the Archaean group ; for a long time 

 I doubted the accuracy of Mr. Griesbach's suggestion that they were as 

 young as Palaeozoic, but the subsequent discovery of the hematite bed 

 and its associated fossiliferous limestone on the Hajigak Pass converted 

 me to this view. 



The Ghorband valley between Matak and Siah-gird appears to run 

 Slah-gird and approximately along an anticline, but it is difficult 

 Waghzar. to correlate the beds of the Pagdiman range on the 



right of the valley with those of the Hindu Kush. Perhaps the diffi- 

 culty is due to the fact that the Paghman rocks have been less highly 

 metamorphosed, but it is possible that the Tertiary and Recent gravels 

 that rill the valley-bottom hide a fault. A. traverse up the valley which 

 comes down from the south-east to join the Ghorband river on its 

 right bank at Siah-gird, discloses nothing but slate, quartzite and some 

 black shale. Slate and quartzite are the prevailing rocks right up to 

 the snows at the head of the valley. The dip is usually northerly but 

 occasionally in the opposite direction. I have referred these beds to 

 the Helniand series, but their true stratigraphical position is doubtful. 

 On the opposite side of the valley, in the Waghzar ravine, a considerable 

 thickness of dark slate and quartzite is overlain by black and brightly 

 coloured shales followed by red limestone ; above this is more slate 

 with bands of red and grey limestone. The latter is sometimes almost 

 entirely composed of crinoid stems, which, however, are crystalline and 

 quite undeterminable. Slates, calc-schists and quartzites seem to ex- 

 tend from VVaghzar up to the crest of the Hindu Kush, where they are 

 penetrated and absorbed by the granite. Metamorphism is everywhere 

 most pronounced, and, both in Waghzar and in the next valley to the 

 west the sedimentary beds are invaded by igneous rocks including 



