CORRELATION WITH SIMLA SERIES. 
Ill 
to the Talchir boulder-bed of the Salt Range. The present writer 
has not had the opportunity of seeing either of the two last-named 
formations, but the recent survey of Spiti may nevertheless throw some 
light on the question, for it is hoped that a detailed examination of 
the fossils collected from the Po series may definitely fix the age of the 
conglomerates; at present it is only possible to say that they are 
either upper carboniferous or permian, but their exact horizon is still 
a matter of doubt. Quite recently a series of slates and limestones 
have been found by Dr. Noetling in Kashmir; they are. said to overlie 
tuffs, which are not improbably the representativt-:; of Lydekker's 
" Panjdl system," and are said to contain permian fishes and lower 
Gondwana plants, in which case the underlying beds would appear to be 
. referable to the beds at the base of the Gondwanas, or, in other words, 
to the Talchir boulder-bed, and should the tuff series be found to contain 
the Panjal conglomerate, correlation with the Salt Range might safely 
be considered as established. As stated above (p. 57), it is highly 
probable that the Po series of shales and quartzites, as well as the 
overlying permian beds, will be found to be continuous, from upper 
Spiti, at least into the Lingti valley in Kashmir, and a survey of the 
intervening area should, therefore, definitely determine the relation 
between Lydekker's " Panjd.1 system " and the neighbouring beds of 
Spiti; and such a correlation, once established, would probably link up 
the Salt Range with both Spiti and Kashmir. This, however, would 
not necessarily bring us much nearer to the solution of the problem of 
the age of the Blaini rocks, for we have seen that there are two series 
in Spiti, differing widely from one another in age, each of which has 
certain points of lithological resemblance to the Simla beds, but in 
neither case do there appear to be sufficient grounds for definite correla- 
tion, and until evidence of a more satisfactory nature can be obtained, 
we must look upon the question as still unsolved. 
( III ) 
