GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN. 



79 



The limestone of Kharwar and Dobandi, which has been referred by 

 Mr. Griesbach to the Upper Trias (rhsetic) is said to overlie plant-bear- 

 ing beds ; it may, therefore, perhaps be an extension of the Khingil 

 series, in which case it indicates south-westerly transgression of the 

 Himalayan Tethys over an older Triassic land-surface. But there is no 

 evidence that this transgression extended to Western Afghanistan, 

 where the Upper Triassic facies is quite unlike the Khingil series and 

 where no Himalayan types have been found. 



An argillaceous facies of Upper Triassic age was found by Mr. 

 Vredenburg in Baluchistan (31, 162), and the fossils were described by 

 Professor Diener in Records, Geological Survey of India, Vol. XXXIV 

 (p. ; they include Monotis salinaria s a species of Ralorites belong- 

 ing to the group of catenati continui, a species of either Distic/iites or 

 Ditimarites, also Celtites, Paratibetites and Rhacophyllites. Although 

 IJahrites is a common genus in the Himalayan Trias, the species found 

 there belong entirely to the acatenati ; on the other hand, the catenati 

 continui are extremely common in Europe. The Baluchistan form is 

 therefore essentially un-Indian, and is a link with Europe. The species 

 of RhacupJiyllites also has European affinities, whereas the other ammo- 

 nites are related to Himalayan forms. Here, then, we have perhaps 

 indications of a " meeting of the waters," and it may have been through 

 Tezin, Kharwar and Pishin that communication was established in 

 Upper Triassic times between the Indian and European marine provinces. 

 At that period Northern and Western Afghanistan appear to have been 

 in a state of instability, resulting in alternate periods of subsidence 

 and elevation, neither probably of any considerable duration or import- 

 ance and both accompanied by volcanic activity. Subsequently terres- 

 trial conditions were definitely established, and by the middle of the 

 Jurassic period Afghan Turkistan, with Western Afghanistan and 

 Khorasan, were joined to Russian Turkistan, which was the south- 

 westerly extension of Angaraland. After the formation of the Saighan 

 series, which is merely the uppermost member of Suess' Angara series 

 (29, 19), Northern Afghanistan appears to have formed part of a great 

 land-locked basin, in which was deposited a thick series of red beds 



