4 
DIENER : TRIAS OF THE HIMALAYAS. 
recognised the Triassic character of seventeen species of ammonites. 
Guembel assigned three species of bivalves to the Buntsandstein. 
In the meantime E. Beyrich' proved the ammonites described by 
Oppel to be of Muschelkalk age. 
Thus the presence of two different Triassic horizons had been estab- 
lished in the Himalayas, of the Lower Trias (Buntsandstein) in a bivalve- 
bearing facies, and of the Muschelkalk in a facies of dark limestone rich 
in Cej)halopoda. But this estabUshment had been based on the study 
of fossils only discovered by travellers in different parts of the sedi- 
mentary belt of the great range. Stratigraphical observations in the 
field were still entirely wanting. 
Stoliczka was the first author, who gave a rough outline of the 
stratigraphy of the Himalayas after having visited a number of sections 
in Spiti and Kupshu in 1864.^ His system was one strictly based upon 
the simple practice of giving a geographical name to a rock group, 
without reference of each particular local group to a place in the strati- 
graphical standard scale. His views have been adopted by the authors 
of the " Manual of the Geology of India." Both his general classifica- 
tion of the Himalayan Trias and its correlation with the homotaxial 
rock groups in Eixrope have required some modifications, in order to 
bring them into line with our more extensive knowledge. 
Stoliczka grouped the sedimentary formations between the Silurian 
(Muth series) and the Lias (Taghng limestone) into three divisions. He 
distinguished, in descending order : — 
3. Para limestone, corresponding to the rha^tic stage (Dachstein- 
kalk of Austrian geologists). 
2. Lilang series. Upper Trias, corresponding to the beds of Hall- 
statt and St. Cassian. 
1. Ruling series, Carboniferous. 
Stoliczka believed the Upper Trias to rest immediately on the Car- 
boniferous and failed to recognise the Lower and Middle Trias. Without 
depreciating the value of Stoliczka's stratigraphical results it is neces- 
1 E. Beyrich : Ueber einige Cephalopoden aus dem Muschelkalk der Alpen 
und ueber verwandte Arten, Ahhandl. Kgl. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1866, No. 2, 
pp. 105-179. 
2 F. Stoliczka : Geological sections across the Himalaya Mountains from 
Wangtu bridge on the river Sutlej to Sungdo on the Indus. Mem. Geol. Surv. 
of India, Vol. V, Pt. 1, 1865, pp. 1-154. 
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