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IV.— AFGHANISTAN. 
The geological relations of this country have been only recently made 
known, especially through the work done there by Mr. C. L. Griesbach, of 
the Geological Survey of India. Of interest for the present paper are his 
publications on the geological relations of Northern and Western Afghanistan 
and Kliorassan.* In his last contribution to this subject — “ Field Notes, 
No. 5, to accompany a Geological Sketch Map of Afghanistan and North- 
Eastern Kliorassan” — there is (p. 9G) a very detailed table of geological 
formations which have been made known in the various parts of Afghanistan. 
They represent the whole series from Carboniferous, through Permian (?), 
Trias, Jurassic, Cretaceous, &c., up to Upper Pliocene and Recent. 
If we compare the descriptions of this author with the relations in the 
Peninsula of India and in the Sait Range, we find that although Mr. 
Griesbach has determined a group as Productus limestone, yet the other 
sequence of strata is materially different. For, even if the lowest beds of 
the Permo-Trias Series does, as we are told, partly alternate with the Carboni- 
ferous (Productus beds), yet the whole of it lies above the Productus 
limestone, and thus also the conglomerates and sandstones which would 
correspond with the Talchir Eoulder bed ; while in the Salt Range, as we 
have seen, the Crystalline Boulder Series is placed below the Productus 
limestone. The only way of explaining this contradiction would be to sup- 
pose that the deposition of the Productus limestone, as well as of the lowest 
beds of the Permo-Trias corresponding with the Talchir boulder bed, lasted 
a much longer time, and that perhaps the Productus limestone itself is partly 
older than in the Salt Range, so that the Crystalline Boulder Series in the 
Salt Range would correspond with the uppermost beds of the Productus 
beds in Afghanistan, when there the deposition of the conglomerates and 
sandstones had just set in ; while the lower portions of the Productus lime- 
stone in the Salt Range (Upper Carboniferous) would correspond with the 
lowest strata of the plant beds in Afghanistan, alternating with the Productus 
beds there; the higher portions of the Productus limestone of the Salt 
Range with the Permian (Talchirs in India) ; the Ccratitc beds with the 
Trias, &c., of Afghanistan. 
From this it again follows that the Damuda-Panchet Scries (Middle 
Gondwanas) in India, as in Afghanistan, is of Triassic age. 
* Eec. Geol. Survey of India, 1885, Vol. XVIII, Pt. 1, p. 57, &c. Ibidem, 1885, Vol. XIX. Pt. 1, p. 48, 
&e. ; PI. 4, p. 235, &c. Ibidem, 1887, Vol. XX, Pt. 2, p. 93, &e., map. 
