STRATIGR.APHICAL. 



9 



the Shibar pass and the Kotal-i-Chahardar, 1 but I found that Afghans, 

 in speaking in general terms of the great range which divides the Kabul 

 province Kafiristan and Chitral from Badakhshan, do make use of the 

 name of Hindu Kush." Although the tectonic system, of which the 

 Hindu Kush is a part, continues throughout Afghanistan and Persia, I 

 fully endorse Mr. Griesbach's opinion as to the desirability of restricting 

 the name Hindu Kush to the mountains east of the Kotal-i-Shibar ; 

 employing it in fact for so much of the water-parting as is included 

 between the meridians of 68° and 7-A° 2 . 



II. — STRATIGRAPHICAL. 



The geology of the Khyber and of the area adjoining that part of 

 the Afghan frontier has been described by Mr. Griesbach (13, 89), who 

 r ecognised five rock-groups, viz. (in descending order) : — 

 (e) shales and earthy beds ; 

 (d) limestones and alum shales ; 



1 This is not strictly accurate ; the KotaH- Hindu Kush really lies to the east of 

 the Kotal-i-Chahardar. 



2 Since the abuve was written, my attention has been drawn by Major H. L. 

 Crosthwait, E.E., to a paper by Dr. Felix Oswald recently published in Science 

 Progress (No. 17, July 1910). The paper deals chiefly with the Himalayan mountains 

 and Tibet, all beyond the scope of the present memoir, but the sketch-map, which 

 faces page 40, includes the eastern part of Afghanistan and shows the Hindu Kush 

 as a series of ranges, the most important of which appears to be a direct continuation 

 of the Koh-i-Baba ; this is drawn as a well-marked line of folding extending along 

 the north-western side of the Ghorband- Pan jshir trough and passing at some distance 

 to the north and west of Tirich Mir. Still more striking is the importance given to 

 the Paghman range, which is shown as running continuously in a N.E. direction 

 through Afghanistan, then turning east and south-east to pass through Chitral to 

 Hunza and Nagar and apparently ending near Aling Gangi'i. To the west of the 

 Kunar river and between Chitral and Kabul an " Ai'chiean Buttress " is made to include 

 the mountainous region of Kohistan and Kafiristan. Unfortunately, Dr. Oswald does 

 not quote authorities on which this re-arrangement of the Afghan trend-lines is 

 based, and I am unable to ascertain whether he has at his disposal more information 

 than I have been in a po.-ition to collect. I have already shown, however, that the 

 Koh-i Baba is not continuous with the range to the north of Ghorband and Panjshir— 

 the true Hindu-Kush — , whilst the Paghman range has, I think, been given undue 

 importance. It is in reality only a comparatively unimportant feature derived from 

 the virgation of the Hindu Kush. 



