(30 
Record)! of the Geoloyical Survey of India. 
[VOL. XT. 
Again, if this liypothesis be correct, the “ central gneiss” will be the equivalent 
of some part of the gneissic series of the northern flanks of the Zanskar range, 
though it is, of cmrrso, quite possible that in those places where there is a transi¬ 
tion from slate to gneiss that gmeissose beds in one place may correspond to 
slaty beds in another. 
On the other hand, the “ central gneiss” is supposed to be the oldest known 
rock in the Indian Himalayas, and if we consider that this gneiss is the same as 
the gneiss which underlies confonnably the silurian slate series, we should be 
driven to the conclusion that the gneiss from which the pebbles in the Pangi 
slates are derived was older than the “ central gneiss.” 
The latter consideration would lead us to the conclusion that the “ central 
gneiss” must be distinct from the gneiss underlying the Kashmir Silurians, and 
that there is a break between the two, the Darcha gneiss really being unconform- 
able to the overlying Silurians, and a great portion of the gneiss of the Zanskar 
range being nuconformable to the gneiss which underlies and alternates with the 
slate series, and being contemporaneous with the central gneiss. I cannot, however, 
say positively w'hich of these two hypotheses is the coirect one; and accordingly 
all the gneiss in our area has been colored of the same shade. 
It seems evident that the gneiss which underlies the Pir Panjal slates is 
the same as that which underlies the slates of Kishtwar and the Wardwan, and 
also that which underlies the Pangi slates on the north of the Rotangpass, though 
we cannot say the same with regard to the gneiss of Darcha. 
The gneiss of the Dhaoladhar, if we may judge from its abrupt termination 
to the north-west, may be the equivalent of the “ central gneiss” of Darcha, 
although in strike it corresponds more nearly with that of the Panjal range. 
If it should turn out that the central gneiss be older than the fw/ru-silurian or 
Cambrian gneiss, it will be necessary that the centre of the mass of rocks forming 
the Zanskar range should be colored of a different tint from the gneiss of the 
rest of the map, with the exception probably of the granitic mass at Kailing and 
that of the Dhaoladhar range. Only an arbitrary boundary could, however, in any 
case be attempted. 
It seems, therefore, to be apparent that all the gneiss in the area under dis¬ 
cussion is older than the great mass of rocks of the silurian period (with the 
possible exception of a small mass in the Lower Sind valley), and that in certain 
instances there is a passage from the conformably overlying slates to the under¬ 
lying gneiss, in which case the gneiss generally may be called Cambrian.* Fur¬ 
ther, there is evidence of the existence of another kind of gneiss, which existed 
as such at the silurian period; this gneiss occttts probably in the Zanskar range, 
but whether or no it is the same as the “central gneiss” we are at present 
unable to say. 
With regard to the overlying rocks, we have seen that the Panjal series is 
ir^ra-carboniferous, and we may therefore consider them (in the absence of any 
1 Everywhere this gneiss is overlaid by a great thichness of slates, which are considered as 
silnrians; the conformable gneiss being always below this thickness is called for the sake of dis¬ 
tinction Cambrian, though it may, of course, be occasionally in part silurian, or, on the other hand, 
part of the slates may sometimes be Cambrian. 
