PART 1.] LydehherQeology of Ladak ami Nehjhloimng Bislricls, 
33 
The Pangong slates He to the noi’th against a ridge of gneiss -which runs in 
the normal Himalayan strike, on the line of the Marsemik pass. To the south¬ 
east of the Tatar camp at Chagra, the slates appear to be faulted against the gneiss, 
hut to the north-west of a spur of gneiss running to-wards the south from Chagra, 
the slates conformably overlie the gneiss. The highest beds of the gneiss consist 
of alternations of light and dark bands, some of the latter being garnetiferous, 
like similarly situated gneiss in Pangi. i The gneiss of the Masomik La itself 
is usually porphyritic like that of Tankse ; to the noi’th-west it is continued to the 
valley of the Shyok, and to the south-east I have traced it some distance over 
the border into Chinese Tibet. This ridge of gneiss appears to form an anti¬ 
clinal axis, since on the north side of the Masemik La it has a north-easterly 
dip, and is overlaid conformably by slates, sandstones, jaspideous rocks, and the 
before-mentioned massive, slaty-sandy, or trappoid rock, so characteristic of the 
Dras Silurians. Many of the higher beds of the crystalline series consist of a 
dark-colored hornblendic rock -with bronzite, similar to a rock -which occurs in 
the same position in the Tankse valley section. These massive trappoid rocks 
were ajjparently considered by Dr. Stoliezka® to show some signs of an igneous 
origin, and also to show some resemblance to the Silurian series of Srinagar; 
my o-wn opinion is, that none of these rocks ai’e of igneous origin, though they do, 
undoubtedly, very closely resemble some of the trappoid rocks of the Kashmir 
Silurian series, some of which have probably been brought to their present 
condition by metamorphic action.^ From the summit of the Masemik La to 
the bed of the Chang-Chenmo river, we have a generally ascending section 
through these same slaty rocks; a short distance on the north side of the pass, 
some of these rocks have been locally altered into a dark-colored gneiss, similar in 
character to that which I have already referred to, as occupying a corresponding 
position in the Tankse valley. On the Chang-Chenmo river, the slate series 
seems to bo faulted against massive Triassic limestones, which I shall notice 
again in the succeeding section of this paper. 
Dr. StoHczka’ seems to have considered that the gneissic rocks of the Mase¬ 
mik La were an altered portion of the slate series of the Chang-Chenmo valley, 
and that consequently both were of Silurian age. There appears to me, however, 
to be a clear case of the superposition of the latter on the former, as in the 
other sections of similar rocks already described. 
The rooks to the south of the Chang-Chenmo valley, as I have said, were 
referred by Dr. Stoliczka” to the Silurian. Dr. Stoliezka also compares these 
rocks to the trappoid rocks of Srinagar, whence we may conclude that he also 
considered them to be Silurian. Both these rocks arc, however, similar in char¬ 
acter to those to the south of Dras, which Stoliezka® at first classed as Carboni¬ 
ferous, but which appear to me to be Silurian. 
* Rec. Gool. Surv. of India, Vol. XI, p. 54. 
® Manual of Geology of India, p. 653. 
3 See Rec. Geol. Surv. of India, Vol. XI p. 36, et seq. 
* Geology of Second Ifarkand Mission, p. 16. 
* Ibii, p. 16. 
Mom. of the Geol. Surv, of India, Vol. V, p. 313. 
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