RUPSHU. 93 
horizon, all traces of fossils have as a rule been obliterated and the 
greater part of Rupshu consists, as stated by Stoliczka, of meta- 
morphic schists, to which, however, he did not attempt to assign 
Effects of ineta- any definite age. The same rocks were sub- 
morphism. sequently classed by Lydekker among his 
" metamorphic Panjals and archaean." The upper part of this series 
is well-exposed in the Pankpo, Piri and Chepzi valleys, where 
it consists of crushed limestones, slates and calc-schists. Amongst 
these, representatives of the middle and lower trias and permiaii 
can be traced with a great degree of certainty, and correlations 
based at first on lithological grounds were subsequently confirmed 
by the discovery of fossils, badly crushed but still recognisable ; they 
are, however, very rare, and have been found only in two localities, 
in the Pankpo river, near Kiangshisa, and in the Piri river, near 
Sitang Gongma. At the former locality Daonella indica was found 
in black calcareous slates, which evidently represent the ladinic stage 
of Spiti, and in the Pdra river the Productus shales were recognised 
near vSitang Gongma, where they are represented by dark slates 
containing the characteristic fossils. The Productus shales are under- 
lain by calcareous schists and crushed limestones, which locally contain 
immense numbers of crinoid stems, and which presumably represent 
the calcareous beds which underlie the Productus shales in Spiti. 
They pass down into crushed grits and conglomerates, which clearly 
represent the permian conglomerates seen near Po. They are very 
well exposed in the Pankpo river and also in the valley of the Chepzi 
stream, and can be traced along the hills on either side of the Para 
river near Chepzi. Below these a series of slates and metamorphic 
schists occupies the greater part of Rupshu between the Pankpo river 
and Narbo Sumdo on the one side and the range separating Rupshu 
from Hdnle on the other. To the south of this range, near the Shal- 
sh51 Pass and at Sh^lshal Dengo E. G., the schists are underlain by 
white and dark-grey crystalline limestones, with interbedded white 
quartzites, which most probably represent the carboniferous beds 
of the Lipak river 
( 93 ) 
