hAYDEN : GEOLOGY SPlTi. 
Chapter V. 
MESOZOIC GROUP. 
During the summer of 1898 the lower trias of Spiti was examined 
in detail by the present writer, and large collections of fossils were 
made : at the same time the upper triassic beds were also examined, 
but only somewhat cursorily, and collections were made from only a 
few horizons. In the following year the writer was accompanied by 
the late Dr. von Krafft, whose extensive knowledge of triassic fossils 
rendered him specially suited to the study of the great complex of 
triassic rocks of Spiti, and it was therefore arranged that he should 
confine his attention chiefly to the mesozoic beds, while the present 
writer undertook the palaeozoic systems. By this arrangement it was 
hoped that it might be possible to give a comprehensive and fairly 
detailed account of the stratigraphy of Spiti, but owing to the sudden 
death of Dr. von Krafft, the whole work has devolved upon the 
writer, and since it was found impossible at present to devote another 
season to field work, the following account of the mesozoic systems 
has been based on the somewhat scattered notes made by him and on 
the materials left by the late Dr. von Krafft, from which the greater 
part of the present chapter has been compiled. At the same time the 
progress reports published by Dr. von Krafft in the Annual Reports ^ 
of this department have been largely drawn on, and the work must in 
the main be looked upon as his. 
Triassic System. 
Lower Trias. 
Although the supposed existence of lower triassic beds in Spiti 
had been recorded as early as 1865,^ no section 
Previous o servers. heen described in detail from any part of the 
1 General Report, G. S. I., 1899- 1900 and 1 900-1 901. 
>C. W. Gumbel : " Ueber das Vorkommen von unteren Triasschichten in 
Hochasien"; Sitz k. k. Akad. d. Wiss., 1865. 
C 60 ) 
