120 Records of the Geological Survey of India. [voL. xii. 
associated with certain coal black gi’aphitic shales, one or two very constant 
zones of w'hich are known to the natives as the “ Surma lurri” rug or belt. 
Dolomitic and brecciated, or pseudo-hrecciated, varieties of the limestones are 
frequently met with (see Section 1). 
Geographically the slates intervene between the mesozoic limestones of 
the southern Hazara hiUs and the Tanol group of the northern series. An 
isolated patch of them and their associated limestones stretches from the ISiainsuk 
valley, forming the lofty peak of Mian-Jani-ka-Chauki, and passing westwards 
by Snjkot among the limestone hills south of the Core valley. Their stratifica¬ 
tion is much disturbed; cleavage is prevalent in places along so many planes that 
the rock is cut up into splinters ; in others it is scarcely developed, and the thinly 
laminated structure of the slates enables them to be split into flags or even 
bedding slates, of inferior quality. 
A long fault forms their southern boundary for a considerable distance, 
another hi’ing’S them in contact with the northern side of the Sirban mesozoic 
exposure, and still another forms their northern limit for many miles, coin¬ 
ciding with a long valley running from Haripur towards the north-east, so that 
this fault passes northwards of Abbottabad. 
The unconformable infraposition of these slates to the infra-triassic rocks 
of Sirban has been pointed out in the paper on that mountain {1. c.) ; their 
junction with the Tanol group is mainly a line of dislocation; hut where this 
is not evident, they appear to underlie those rocks; and they are seen uncon¬ 
formable to, and apparently beneath, beds similar both to some of those in the 
Tanol group and to the Sirban infra-tinassic beds, on the road from Abbottabad to 
Mangli (or Mangal); they also unconformably underlie the Hicerocarfiwewi limestone 
of the Zyarat hill close to Hassan Abdal. 
The main strike of the slates, and their most extensively recognisable fault 
lines, follow the north-east south-west beai'ings of the rocks and ranges west 
of the river Jhelum with vaiying regularity. They possess an almost monotonous 
unity of aspect which imparts itself to the ground they form, this everywhere 
presenting the same minutely mammilated and steeply fretted surfaces, coated 
with a scaly layer of finely divided detrital fragments, giving the ground a 
peculiar soft greenish-olive tint. It is only when limestone bands are present 
that the outlines become rugged. 
As a rule, in the southem paxi; of Hazara, the slates are unaltered along 
the side of their cxposui’o next to the mesozoic and eocene limestone hills ; but 
on the opposite side, between Gandgarh ridge and the Indus, as well as generally 
towards the Tanol group, some amount of metamorphism has I’endei’ed them 
silky or lustrous, and traces of alteration are much more evident in their asso¬ 
ciated limestones which ofteix pi-esent a curiously matted foliation. 
Conglomerates, propeily speaking, have not been found in the Attock slate 
group; but a few of the more coarse-grained beds wei-e observed to enclose 
lumps of quai-tz or quartzite scattered thi’ough the rock, and not unfrequently 
pi’esenting pebble-like foi’ms. 
These Attock slates of Hazai’a have been found, as usual in their moi’e 
westerly extension, to contain no vestige of organic life. Even the limestones 
