AK ROBAT. 



55 



this again are high cliffs of massive light grey limestone full of 

 Neoschwageriua primigena Hayden. I do not know what overlies 

 these beds, as I was unable to visit the top of Koh-i-Ghandak, but they 

 are probably covered uneonformably by the Upper Cretaceous limestone, 

 which spreads out towards the west and comes down into the Bamian 



Fasulina 

 Limestone 



Fig. 6. 



Probable section across the Bamian valley between Taibut and Ziavat Chasbnia 

 Shafan. 



valley at a few miles above Taibut. Above Ziarat Chashma Shafan, 

 it overlaps dark slatas which lie, apparently conformably, on the 

 massive dark grey limestone of the gorge. In the gorge and at the 

 upper end of it, it overlaps first the massive limestone and then the 

 underlying slates and quartzites. At the foot 

 of the ascent to Ak Robat Kotal the rocks under- 

 lying the Upper Cretaceous beds are chiefly dark limestone, which, 

 higher up on the pass, contains crinoid stems and fragments of Fusulina. 

 To the west of this, the principal rocks are members of a group of 

 basic igneous intrusions, of which serpentine is the predominant type ; 

 these continue far up the valley towards the Kotal-i-Chap Kolak and 

 along" the new road to Ak Robat. 



The rocks of the gorge between the ziarat 1 and Ak Robat were 

 described by Mr. Griesbach in some detail (9, 240). The lower 

 end of the gorge is cut through a dark massive limestone in which 

 he noticed indeterminable casts of brachiopods. He regarded the 

 limestone as older than the quartzites, grits and slates which form 

 the sides of the upper part of the gorge as far as the southern 

 1 Ziarat, a Mahomedan shrine. 



