30 
Records of the Oeolofcal Survey of India. 
[vOL. XII. 
scratclies on some of the angular blocks of this moraine. The blocks in this 
moraine consist almost entirely of the amygdaloidal rocks of the Shalian ridge, 
while the moi’aine itself rests in a hollow of the Sonamarg limestone. At an 
elevation of about 2,000 feet above the Sonamarg plateau three small glaciers still 
nestle in sheltered ravines on the northern aspect of the Shalian ridge. Mr. Drew 
thinks it probable that the whole of the Sind valley nearly as far down as 
Kangan was foiuncrly occupied by a glacier—a conclusion with which I agree. 
The hill of limestone separating the village of Sonamarg from the valley of the 
larger Thajwaz glacier, represented at page 219 of Mr. Drew’s book, is at its 
lowest point some 500 feet above the level of the Sonamarg moraine, and has a 
peculiarly rounded appearance, which suggests the probability of this hill having 
been once buried beneath the ice of the old glacier. 
On the Ladak side of the Zoji pass, we find at Dras, which has an elevation 
of some 10,000 feet, two huge embankments of detrital matter, some four or five 
miles in length, extending from the crystalline ridges of the north into the Dras 
valley, and consisting almost entirely of boulders of the crystalline rocks strewung 
the surface of the slate rocks of Dras. From the form of these masses of detrital 
matter, I think that they are certainly duo to former glacial action ; which opinion 
is strengthened by the groat distance over which the boulders have travelled, 
and by the very slight fall of the ground on which they lie,—a fall so slight that I 
cannot think these huge blocks could have possibly been moved along it by the 
action of water alone, especially as there is no great river along the line of their 
course. 
It now remains to consider certain granitoid blocks in the Jhelam valley 
below Baramula which Colonel Godwin-Austen ^ suggests may have been brought 
into their present position by the aid of ice-action. In discussing the question of 
the glacial or non-glacial origin of the deposits in wdiich these blocks occur, it 
will be necessaiy to go somewhat into the history of the Jhelam valley. 
On refen-ing to the outline map accompanying my paper on the Geography 
of the Pir Panjal, it will be seen that there are two masses of gneiss, one on 
either side of the valley, above and below Bampur, but which do not extend 
down into the stream itself. It is from these masses of gneiss that the boulders 
in the river bed have been derived; and it only remains to consider the means by 
which they have attained their present position. 
The first of those masses of gneiss occurs a little to the south of the town 
of Naushara; this gneiss extends into the watershed of the mountain torrents, 
which descend into the Jhelam valley, so that it is quite possible for blocks of it 
to be carried by water into the Jhelam. Immediately below Baushara we come 
upon an alluvial deposit in the river, which is chiefly composed of blocks of this 
gneiss, which, as being harder, remains after the slate boulders from the 
neighbouring cliffs have been ground to powder. 
At Rampur this alluvial formation contains gneissic blocks, some of w'hich 
are as much as 15 feet in diameter j the whole formation is at least one bundled 
* free. Geol. Soc., London, 1864, p. 383. 
