28 
Records of the Geological Survey of Lidia, 
[vOL. XII. 
and as we have already seen that Ammonites have been found elsewhere in India 
in strata containing carboniferous fossils, it is not improbable, nay rather it is 
very probable, that there may here be a mingling of fossils of different periods ; 
and that consequently no hard-and-fast boundaries can be draivn corresponding to 
the limits of European formations ; though at the same time it should be observed 
that it may hereafter be quite possible to distinguish independent Indian life- 
zones in these strata, should abundant fossils ever be discovered in them. 
In the map Avherever there is a regular sequence of strata from the Panjal 
slates to the upper triassic dolomites of Dras and Amrnath, the limestones under¬ 
lying the latter have been classed as carboniferous. Along the faulted line of 
Thajwaz the whole series has been referred to the trias from the evidence of the 
Ammonite, which, as above said, may be doubtful; and there may therefore be a 
few carboniferous beds at the base of the anticlinal, while at the same time some 
of the higher slates may be of carboniferous age. 
Wo may also observe that since the limestones of the valley of Kashmir itself, 
which contain numerous carboniferous fossils at their base, are in many places 
thicker than the carboniferous band in the limestone series of the north of 
Ka.shmir, it is more than probable that some portions of the former are the repre¬ 
sentatives of the triassic scries. At Manasbal ^ this has already been proved to 
bo the case, from the identity in mineral character of the white dolomites at the 
top of the series in that place with the similar rocks of Dras and Amrnath. In 
the south-eastern extremity of the valley of Kashmir, the whole of the limestone 
series has the same mincralogical composition throughout, and the higher beds 
have hitherto yielded no fossils. We have therefore no direct evidence to 
connect the upper beds there with the trias of Dras, and they must therefore 
remain on the map as of carboniferous age, until evidence can be produced to the 
contraiy. 
Finally, we must come to the conclusion that the Kashmir limestone series 
forms an unbroken sequence of strata, which must be the equivalents of all the 
European strata from the upper devonian to the upper triassic inclusive ; but as, 
with one exception, no devonian or permian fossils have been discovered, the 
strata have been colored on the map as carboniferous and triassic only. 
From the distribution of the limestone series in Kashmir, it seems pretty 
evident that these strata were once connected and extended over the whole area, 
and have been brought into their present form by disturbance and denudation. 
The strata overlying the triassic dolomites of the Zoji-la being sandy and 
clayey in composition, were probably deposited in a shallower sea than that in 
which the older limestones were laid down; and since no newer strata are known 
in this area, it is possible that the bottom of the sea was being upheaved at the 
time of the deposition of these slates, and that the area has not subsequently been 
submerged. 
* Eec. Geol. Suvv. India, Vol. XI, p. 47. 
