58 



HAYDEN : GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN. 



stratigraphical positions of the Fusulina limestone and his " anthracite 



group " would undoubtedly be such as he assumes, but I passed through 



the gorge twice and examined the section carefully in this respect. 



The prevailing dip is certainly south-easterly, and unless there is either 



inversion or overthrust, of which I have no evidence, the limestone of 



the lower end of the gorge must be younger than the slates and quart- 



zites which underlie it. The graphitic character of the series is very 



conspicuous on the right side of the Saighan valley just above Saraiak, 



where the rock is a graphitic schist. I found nothing, however, that 



seemed to suggest anthracite or other combustible material. 



At Saraiak, the Cretaceous beds come down into, and spread 



„ , . across, the vallev, and abut against the 6hales of 



Upper Saighan. \ / ™ 



the Saighan series ; the junction is a thrust-plane 

 connected with a recumbent fold which runs all along the northern 

 side of the valley (see Plates 5 and 11). Above Saraiak the valley 



N.E. S.W. 



Fig. 7. 



Section across Saighan valley, near Deh Imam, 

 opens out into a wide basin, and is filled with Upper. Tertiary 

 deposits which lie unconformably against the Cretaceous limestone 

 and Saighan series on the left, and on the right spread far up on to 

 the hills above Sokhta Chinar. At about a mile below Deh Imam 

 and on the same side of the river, the Cretaceous beds dip steeply down 

 into the valley, and are overlain unconformably by a mass of hori- 

 zontal Tertiary deposits lying in a bay in the eroded Cretaceous out- 

 crop. The Tertiary beds are much thicker here than in Bamian, their 

 total thickness being probably 2,000 feet at least. They consist chiefly 



