38 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
April 3rd, Kogachak, near Aktash. — [Frontier of Sarikol belonging to Kashghar, and 
Wakhan under the rule of Kabul.] Eo llowed up the Talley for about a mile, when the gneiss 
was apparently underlain by black palaeozoic slates, strike almost from east to west, and the dip 
very little towards the gneiss — or, rather, the beds were vertical. I could not find a trace of 
fossils. The slate is brittle, and very much cleaved in different directions : it would not do for 
roofing purposes, unless large quarries were opened. The slates continued for more than a 
mile, then they gradually became calcareous, and a series of thin-bedded whitish bmestones 
followed — first, again, almost vertical, but, a little further on, distinctly dipping at an angle of 
about 50° towards the slates, though evidently younger. The limestone was dolomitic and 
highly bituminous, but unfossiliferous. After about a mbe it changed to grey limestone, and 
became slaty. Then followed a band of greenstone for about half a mile, overlain by 
brownish-black shales, apparently carboniferous ; and these shales were overlain by greenish 
dolomitic crinoidal limestones, bthologically the same as those which I found to be carbonifer- 
ous in the Artysh district. I dare say this limestone is also carboniferous. However, the 
upper beds of this limestone series are paler, and apparently less dolomitic ; and in them I found 
a cordiform pelecypod, like Megalodon, very common. Possibly the whole of the limestones, 
but certainly those on the western side of the range, are triassic. They rest here on purple 
and greenish shales and slates, which are afterwards traversed by greenstone. (See also diary 
of May 6th.) 
April 4th, Onkul. — A march of about 24 miles. Crossed a spur over an old gravel 
deposit, and traversed a valley, the rocks on both sides of which were whitish triassic lime- 
stone, resting on reddish shaly rock, which, again, overlaid black slates, evidently palaeozoic. 
Before we reached camp the slates rested on gneiss. 
April Bill, Oi-kul or Kul-i- Pamir Khurd {Little Pamir Lake). — Marched about 24 miles 
along the valley of Pamir Khurd, or Little Pamir. The rocks composing the hills to the left 
of the valley are all gneiss to an elevation of 2,000 or 2,500 feet above the valley; those to the 
right are higher and more sharply ridged, but their composition could not be ascertained. 
April 6th, Langur. — Marched about 24 miles. After 6 miles, in a west by south 
direction, the hills to the north became black slates, resting on gneiss. These same slates 
were seen dipping at an angle of about 60° to north-east by north at the entrance into the 
valley, which was here very narrow. They were overlain higher up by reddish slates and con- 
glomerates, and the whole of the series has bands of quartzite, often intercalated : one of these 
quartzite bands seems to have passed right across the stratification of the slaty rocks at the 
entrance of the narrow part of the valley from the Pamir, which here terminates. The 
gneiss on the Pamir appears to have had only a very slight dip to north. The black slaty 
rock continued all the way to camp. 
April 7tli, JDaraz-ditoan, 15 miles. — Black slates, dipping north by east, were seen on 
both sides of the valley, and on the right the purplish or reddish slates and conglomerates rested 
on them. The conglomerates consisted of angular boulders of white quartzite in a reddish or 
purplish matrix. I saw fragments of similar conglomerate in the Sanju river. 
April 8th, Sarhada. — March of 11 miles. Por the first 2 miles black slates were seen along 
the road, which was above the level of the river ; further on, the slates rested on the same fine- 
grained gneiss which we had seen at Pamir Khurd, until within half a mile of Sarhada, where 
the slate again came down into the valley. 
Throughout the valley, from the spot where it was entered from Pamir Khurd, old banks 
of bedded clay and gravel are seen up to 1,200 and 1,500 feet above the present level of the 
