50 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VII. 
strikingly resemble those of the supra-nummulitic group, so extensively represented in the 
neighbourhood of Mari. They decompose very readily, covering the slopes of the mountains 
rvith loose boulders and sand, under which very little of the original rock can be seen. 
Near the camp the beds dip at about 40° to north-east, hut about one mile and a half 
further on a low gap runs parallel to the strike, and on the other side of it the beds rise 
again, dipping with a similar angle to south-west, thus forming a synclinal at the gap. 
Below the conglomerate there crops out a grey, often semi-crystalline limestone, containing 
in some of its thick layers large numbers of Crinoid stems, a Spirifer, very like S. striatus, 
and two species of Fennestelhs. Following the river to north by east, this carboniferous 
limestone again rests on chloritic schist, which, after a mile or two, is overlain by red sand¬ 
stone, either in horizontal or very slightly inclined strata. Both these last named rocks are 
very friable, easily crumbling between the fingers, particularly the latter, from which the cal¬ 
careous cement has almost entirely been dissolved out. At Sanju the red sandstones underlie 
coarse grey calcareous saudstones and chloritic marls, some beds of which are nearly exclu¬ 
sively composed of Grypheea vesintlaris, many specimens of this most characteristic mid¬ 
dle cretaceous fossil being of enormous size. The Gryphcea beds and the red sandstones 
are conformable to each other, and although I have nowhere seen them interstratified near 
their contact, there is strong evidence of their being both of cretaceous age. Both decom¬ 
pose equally easily, and the Gryphaa beds have indeed in many places been entirely denuded. 
They have supplied the greater portion of the gravel and beds of shifting sand, which 
stretch in a north-easterly direction towards the unknown desert-land. 
Ou the road from Sanju to Yarkand, which first passes almost due west and after some 
distance to north-west, we crossed extensive tracts of those gravel beds, and of low hills 
almost entirely composed of clay and sand, though we only skirted the true desert country. 
Locally, as, for instance, near Oi-tograk and Boris, pale reddish sandstones crop out from 
under the more recent deposits, hut they appear to be younger than the cretaceous red sand¬ 
stones, underlying the Gryphcea beds; the former most probably belong to some upper 
tertiary group. Among tbe sandy and clayey deposits I was not a little surprised to find 
true Loess, as typical as it can anywhere be seen in the valleys of the Rhine or of the Danube. 
I might even speak of ‘ Berg’ and ‘ Thal-Loss,’ but I shall not enter into details on this 
occasion; for I may have a much better opportunity of studying this remarkable deposit. 
At present I will only notice that commonly we meet with extensive deposits of Loess only 
in the valleys. Its thickness varies in places from ten to eighty, and more, feet; a fine 
yellowish unstratified clay, occasionally with calcareous concretions and plant fragments. 
In Europe the origin of this extensive deposits was, and is up to the present date, a dis¬ 
puted question. Naturally, if a geologist is not so fortunate as to travel beyond tbe ‘ Rhine’ 
or ‘ Donau-thal,’ and is accustomed to be surrounded with tbe verdant beauty of these valleys, 
he might propose half a dozen theories, and as he advances in his experience disprove 
the probability of one after the other, until his troubled mind is wearied of prosecuting the 
object further. Here in the desert countries, where clouds of fertile dust replace those of 
beneficial vapour, where the atmosphere is hardly ever clear and free from sand, nay occa¬ 
sionally saturated with it, the explanation that the Loss is a subaerial deposit, is almost 
involuntarily pressed upon one’s mind. I do not think that by this I am advancing a new 
idea; for,—unless I am very much mistaken,—it was my friend Baron Richthofen who 
came to a similar conclusion during his recent sojourn in Southern China. 
Yarkand lies about five miles from the river, far away from the hills, in the midst of a 
well cultivated land, intersected by numerous canals of irrigation ; a land full ot interest 
for the agriculturist, but where tbe geological mind soon involuntarily falls into repose. And 
what shall I say of our road from Yarkand to Kashgar? Little of geological interest, I 
am afraid. 
