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Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. x. 
crest of the ridge, and then passes to the east of a mountain-top that rises beyond. The 
Hindustan and Tibet road runs at a lower level on the western side of this ridge; a spur, 
called Kaleri-ki-Dhar, runs nearly due east towards the Giri. On the crest of this spur 
the Blaini conglomerate crops out (dip 24° north-east-ll°-north). It is the counterpart of 
the outcrop below Chepal. Where first struck, it would require an eye trained to the 
Blaini rocks to identify it, for it is much overgrown with lichen and flowered over with 
quartz-veins. Further along the ridge it is more easily recognised, and the white quartz 
eggs are abundant. Though the matrix is hard, I was able in some cases to extricate the 
rounded boulders of quartzite almost entire. The matrix is of a whitish-grey colour and 
of schistose texture, and, in some blocks, the pebbles and boulders are so abundant that it 
was difficult to get good specimens of the matrix. Here, too, some of the quartzite pebbles 
are traversed by fine quartz-veins that do not extend into the matrix. One large block of 
rock I found with one face smoothed down and polished so as to show beautiful sections of 
the white quartz eggs which were abundant in the slab. This is undoubtedly the Blaini 
conglomerate, and it is in situ. The outcrop coincided with the crest of the ridge for a 
little distance, and then edged away from it down the flank of the spur. The strike of the 
bed would, if followed down the precipitous descent to the Giri, lead to the outcrop on the 
bank of that river already described. 
In the opposite direction the line of strike would lead to the Hindustan and Tibet road 
somewhere near the 20th mile from Simla, hut the line passes through a forest and I have 
not noticed any outcrop. Below the conglomerate (viz., in the direction of Thiog) for some 
little distance, the rocks are slates (Simla slates) with a light grey streak. Dip east-north¬ 
east. Above the conglomerate are the Infra-Krol slates. Some of the latter are quite black. 
Following the road towards Mattiana, the Infra-Krol schists dip at first north-east 39°, but 
they subside into a low north-east-1 l°-north dip. These schists lead up to and dip under a 
strong hand of quartzite which begins to show where the road rises to the crest of the ridge. 
This can be none other than the Krol quartzite. 
Some distance further on, the Hindustan and Tibet road passes over to the western side 
of the ridge, whilst the old road, still used by pedestrians, keeps to the eastern side. We 
will follow the old road. The rocks exposed are quartzites and silicious, slaty, and micaceous 
schists, until about 21 miles from Mattiana, when a bed of bluish-grey limestone, about 
3 feet thick, crops out. Dip east-north-east. As Mattiana is neared, the schists become 
feebly calcareous. A little beyond Mattiana, they pass into calcareous ohloritie schists, and 
in the line of cliffs facing, and some two or three miles heyond, the Dak Bungalow, these 
schists become full of iron pyrites, generally in the form of minute cubes. These calcareous 
chlorite-schists contain from 6 to 14 per cent.* of carbonate of lime. The variety full of 
iron pyrites is a very curious rock. From the partial segregation of the calcite and the 
chlorite it often assumes a highly foliated structure. There are also numerous veins of white 
calcite in it. It weathers a deep brown. It has dawned upon me latterly that these rocks, 
and there is a considerable thickness of them, must be the Krol limestone highly altered. 
But to return to the Blaini rocks. There is a thin bed of limestone on the top of the 
cliffs above Buni. The point is called Tikka. Elevation 9,280 feet, dip north-east-ll°-north. 
The temple (Nag Devi) there is marked Kolu temple on the map. This rock is a 
magnesian limestone, and rests on a bed greatly resembling the matrix of the typical 
Blaini conglomerate. Under it is a quartzite hand which forms a line of cliffs. Below 
Tikka there is a village on the map named Barana. A little distance to the east of this 
village, I came upon an extensive outcrop of conglomerate of the typical Blaini River type. 
Associated with it was a strong quartzite and a dolomite containing 33'8 per cent, of 
* I was careful to select fair specimens for analysis that would not show an unduly high percentage. 
