37 
PART 1.] Lydehher ■. Geology of Laddh and Ne'ujhlourmj Districts. 
band. In this limestone near Khalclii' I found a species of Turbo, and numbers 
of little disks which I believe to be Nnmmulites, though their structure is 
obliterated. On the Zanskar river, on the other hand, nummulites are extremely 
abundant in this limestone, and water-worn pebbles exhibiting sections of those 
fossils show the banks of the Indus at Nimo.“ The nummulite, which is charac¬ 
teristic of this limestone, is, Jlr. Blanford informs me, N. rayiiioiuli, an Eocene 
species, which fixes the age of these rocks : this species with N. exjoonens were 
obtained from these rocks by Dr. Stoliezka. 
In the Indus valley betAveen Khalchi and Nimo the nummulitic limestone is 
overlaid by several feet of a coarse conglomerate, containing pebbles of the 
underlying limestone : this conglomerate is apparently conformable to the lime¬ 
stone, and is succeeded by shales and slates. The Tei’tiary sedimentary series 
near Khalchi may be tabulated as follows :— 
f Shales and slates. 
UPPEE ...3 Limestone conglomerate. 
V. Nummulitic limestone. 
Middle ^ and green shales and sandstones. 
* Orange and hrown calcareous sandstones and shales. 
Lowee ... Grey and brown slates, sandstones, grits, or conglomerates; the sandstones 
often ripplc-markcd. 
Such is the noimal section of the Eocenes at and below Khalchi: above the 
latter place, on the other hand, a A'ery different condition prevails in the lower 
beds. On the Saspul stream the boundarj' between the Eocenes and the Palaio- 
zoics runs close to the upj)er Kashmir and Ladak road. The lower Eocenes, 
which are inclined to the south-west at an angle of about 25°, consist of very 
soft brown and yellow sandstones, very frequently showing cross-bedding. In 
these sand.stones are embedded A'ast quantities of blocks of the gneiss of the 
Kailas range, many of them several feet in diameter. Some of the isolated 
blocks shoAved the sandstone strata bending doAvn beloAV them, as if they had 
been dropped from aboA’c on to the still soft sand : tAvo blocks were polished in 
a manner suggesting ice-action. The soft sandstone, with its boulders, lies 
unconformably on the gneiss, corresponding in position to the loAver slates and 
conglomerates of the Khalchi section : it is overlaid by harder green shales and 
the middle Eocenes. Near the village of Ling the lowest strata consist of soft 
colored gypseous shales with occasional bands of a compact buff limestone; this 
limestone contains numerous specimens of a large species of JEstlieria; these 
strata are again overlaid by the purple Subathu-like rocks. At Kimo again, 
there occur soft sandstone strata with embedded gneiss blocks, which are very 
* It is mentioned by Mr. Davidson, in describing some fossils collected in Ladak by Col. 
(then Capt.) Godwin Austen, (Q. J. G. S. L., Vol. XXII, p. 38) that Hippurites wore seen 
in a rock at a jjlace called Kalatys on the Upper Indus; I think that Kalatys must be the 
same place as Khalchi, Avhich is also called Kalatse. I should, however, be very much in¬ 
clined to doubt the occurrence of Jlippnriles either at this pilaoe or anywhere else along 
the Upper Indus, the course of which lies in or near the Tertiarics. 
^ I spell this name and numerous others without the initial S, rvhich seems generally to be 
omitted in pronunciation. Similarly, Nolra for S’Nolra, Kio for S’Kio, Tok for S’Tok, Pro. 
perly also Piti for S’Piti, but the spelling Spiti has acquired a general acceptance. 
