CAMBRIAN SYSTEM. 9 
schists might possibly be regarded as the equivalents of Mr. Griesbach's 
of the Sutlej vaikrita system. Similar schists are, however, 
^^"^y* found in the Sutlej valley between Spueh and 
Hango, and again on the left side of the Spiti river below Chango. In 
the latter localities the kyanite-schists and garnetiferous mica-schists 
are found to pass horizontally into less altered phyllites and clay-slates 
belonging to the cambrian system and corresponding to Mr. Griesbach's 
middle haimantas. Similarly, highly altered staurolite and kyanite 
schists are found between Asrang and Pangi, where the intrusive biotite 
granite is found in contact with the cambrian slates. There istberefore 
no reason to suppose that the schists of the Wangar valley represent the 
vaikrita system, for they also are probably only altered representatives 
of the cambrian slates, while the more acid gneisses, which occur among 
them, may very possibly have been produced by the alteration of the 
fine grits and quartzites of the same system.^ 
" Haimanta " sys- The haimanta system has been subdivided by 
tern of Griesbach. Griesbach into three groups- 
(f) upper haimanta— coViSxsWng of "quartz shales and slates" 
(= "red quartz shales") ; 
[b) middle haimanta — "shales and silky phyllites, with great 
thickness of quartzites "; 
{^d) lower haimanta— '[ quartzite, generally purple, with great 
thickness of conglomerate."^ 
Of the above subdivisions, the upper and middle can be readily 
recognised in all the older palaeozoic sections in Spiti and Bashahr, but 
the lowest, characterised by the presence of conglomerates, has not been 
found. Mr. Griesbach states,^ however, that he found a " conglomerate, 
or rather, boulder-bed" among the haimantas of Spiti. In spite of 
lit is probable that not only in this area, but also in other parts of the 
Himalayas, many of the rocks which have hitherto been relegated to the limbo of 
the " crystalline schists " are in reality merely altered sedimentary beds. 
' Memoirs, G. S. I , vol. XXIII, p. 51. 
' Ibidem, p. 210. 
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