RECORDS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURYEY OF INDIA. 
Part 2.] 
1880 . 
[May. 
Geological Notes hy C. L. Griesbach, F.G.S., Geological Survey of Indi». 
1. The metamorphio rochs of the Himalayas .—It is not my intention to des¬ 
cribe here in detail the rooks composing the Himalayas ; for this I may refer the 
reader to the pages of the Manual and the Memoirs. I will only state that I 
could not see any material difference either in lithology or any other character 
between the metamorphics of the plains of India and those of the hills. Here 
as there we have a gi'eat deal of gneissic rocks of a porphyritic structure, tra- 
vei’sed by many veins of granites of various character, and in that, I may here 
mention, these rocks reminded me forcibly of the granitic gneiss of the Cape, 
with its large felspar twin-crystals, to which Hochstetter has long ago draivn 
attention. Here as there W'e have folds of metamorphic schists of every litholo¬ 
gical variety, traversed by hornblendic dykes, probably old trap outbursts. And 
both in the Peninsula and the Himalayan chain, the average strike of the meta- 
morphic rocks is somewhere from east to west, and in that also these rocks 
correspond with the metamorphics of South and Eastern Africa. 
When travei'sing the Southern Himalayas from south to north, two gneissic 
areas are met with, piarallel to each other, and extending more or less along the 
whole known part of the mountain chain. The first line is in tbe lower moun¬ 
tains south of the main chain, and in the Kumaun section the Almora hill is a 
point in that line. Further north is the main gneissic area of tbe great southern 
or Indian snowy range, with Nandadevi, Trisul, Mana, and other giants rising 
far above 24,000 feet. Between and skirting these gneissic lines, a series of 
metamorphic schists form most of the intermediate gi’ound. In the Kumaun 
sections, they are found to dip north inside the first range (Naini Tal, etc.), 
and to pass with the Almoi'a gneiss below the Bageswar limestones ; in this forma¬ 
tion the dip is rolling, once south, then north again, and finally it appears to 
pass under the second and great central gneiss area, but in reality the strata foi-m 
with the latter a great fold, the upper part of which has been removed by denuda¬ 
tion. On the other side of the gneissic area the schists re-appear again, reclining 
on the gneiss, and finally dipping below the old slate formation, which I shall 
presently prove to be not younger than Cambrian. > 
