36 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
titic beds. These older beds very much, resemble those we saw about Chakmak, 1 which also 
may turn out to be the same we saw north of Tam. 2 The sides of the hills are more or less 
thickly covered with loess dust, which much obscured the bedding of the rocks. I found 
no fossils. 
Among the river boulders I noticed boulders of the red sandstone we saw south of Sanju, 
and a greenish syenitic rock. 
St'tsak Taka. Aktala. . Ighiz Yar* 
Section from Sasak Taka to Igliiz Tar. 
March 23rd, Sasak Taka , 131- miles . — The dark slates, shales, and sandstone continued for 
a couple of miles, then followed greenish chloritic and felspatliic rocks, very much like those 
south of Sanju, but more massive, being in fact a form of greenstone. These cap the whole 
series, and in one or two places come down to the bed of the river. Next follow earthy 
limestones, whitish or dark in colour, without any fossils, and then shales, carbonaceous 
slates, &c., with occasional conglomeratic beds and coarse sandstones. The whole of this 
series appears to be the same we saw on the road from Tam to Sanju. Some of the strata 
very highly carbonaceous, but not a trace of a fossil anywhere, 
March 34th, Kaskasu . — Fourteen miles up the river Kaskasu. Nothing but the same 
carbonaceous slates and shales which are probably palaeozoic, or occasional beds of grey more or 
less coarse sandstone, or even conglomerate. Not a trace of a fossil anywhere. The beds are 
mostly much disturbed and contorted, but where traces of regularity occur, they are seen 
dipping to south-west at an angle of about 50 . About half-way the old rocks were overlain 
by an old alluvial deposit, mostly consisting of boulders of the red sandstone, somewhat 
sparingly intermixed with boulders of gneiss. I have, however, not seen anywhere in situ the 
red sandstone ; the greater portion seems to have come from a valley leading into the Kas- 
kasu from the west about 4 miles east of our camp at Kaskasu. In several of the 
streams coming from the north, pebbles of white dolomitic limestone are seen containing a 
fossil like Bellcrophon. These are probably from the white limestone, which is seen further 
on from the pass, and which is probably carboniferous. There were also blocks of a black 
earthy limestone, full of crinoid stems ; this last is probably Silurian and interbedded with 
the black slates. A very similar limestone was seen on the road, but it contained no crinoids. 
March 35th, Cliehil Gomhds . — A .short march of 11 miles across the Kaskasu pass. The 
bed of the Kaskasu river was strewn with boulders of gneiss, which must have come from 
the head of the stream. East of the pass the rocks are the same as before ; palaeozoic slates» 
sandstones, and conglomerates striking north and south, nearly vertical, much contorted, but 
sometimes dipping to the westward. On the pass the beds apparently dip north-east, but the 
strike is very indistinct, the surface being covered with fine clay, partly derived from the 
1 North-north-west of Kashghar, p. 26. | 2 Near the Sanju pass, south jof Yarkand, p. 21. 
