Records of the Gcoloc/ical Surve// of India. 
[voL. xni. 
PALJiONTOLOGICATi NOTES ON THE LoWER TrUS OF THE HIMALAYAS, hy C. L. 
Gribsrach, F. G. S., Gcologwat Survey of India. 
Major-General R. Strachey, R.E., C.S.I., Avas the first to notice and describe' 
some of the grand sections throngh the Himalayas, and to draw attention to the 
existence in these snowy regions of triassic strata closely allied (as E. Suess 
has first shown)® to the Trias of the Eastern or Austrian Alps. As it has 
been my good fortune to have been sent to those lofty regions, I must here 
acknowledge the debt we owe to the learned General for having furnished such an 
excellent basis for further research in the most interesting region of the globe. 
Having mapped the snowy ranges betw’ccn the valleys of the Dhanli 
Ganga and Goi’i Ganga (Niti and Milam), I was able to collect a considerable 
material for description, but I must defer the detailed report on these noble 
sections, with maps, until after the next field season, when I hope to extend the 
survey to the frontiers of Nepal, 
The great anticlinal fold of porphyritic gneiss Avith granite, termed by 
Stoliezka “ Central gneiss” (by way of comparison AAntli the so called “Central 
gneiss” of the Alps, a definition Avhich has been given up long ago), is conform¬ 
ably OA'erlaid by various metamorphic schists'* and these again by the Palai- 
ozoic and following formations, a brief description of which I haA'c given in the 
companion paper in this number of the Records. I will therefore only mention 
that on the eroded surface of the carboniferous rises the huge mass of the tri¬ 
assic and RliEetic sh’ata. The Rlimtio beds form high, nearly perpendicular cliffs 
with an undercliJI of older rocks, comprising the Avhole Tria.s from the Aljfine 
Werlen beds (Buntsand.stein) to the Upper Keuper rocks, all of which are well 
shown in the natural profile of Plate IV ; the proportions of thicknesses and the 
outlines of the cliff are absolutely correct, being drawn with the aid of a camera 
lucida, from an opposite height, about in a horizontal plain Avith the junction of 
the Rhffitic and Trias. 
In the following list I give a detailed enumeration of the beds composing 
both the Rhsetic and the Trias, with their probable correlations :— 
Ui)pcr Odlite (Spiti slialcs). 
TiIICKNKS!}. 
Ft. In. 
liovvor Lias ... 1. lUack shales and * dark earthy limestone with 
oolitic structure, containing ... ... 13 0 
jltesemhlos the Belemnites bifiuluatu.^y Stol. 
Cfrestenerbodsof „ iibeticus, „ 
the Eastern Alps. „ sp. 
Awnwnites annida/ns, l^ow, var. 
„ rJavsef, Sow. 
Bhijnchonella austriaca, Sss. 
2'halassitps depressuti, Qn. 
(fstrea.y sp. 
Pecten^ sp. 
Total ... 13 0 
’ Quart, .lour. CJpoI. Sop,, Vol. VII, p. 292. 
5 A’erli. Geol. Kcichsanst. 18G2, )). 258. 
See 'Pext illustration, fig. 1, of niy paper in this number of the Kocords, p. 84. 
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