part 4.] Lydekhcr: Geology of Pir Panjal and neighbouring Districts. 
155 
Notes on the Geology of the Pie Panjal and neighbouring Districts, 
by R. Lydekkeb, b.a., Geological Survey of India. 
The present paper is in continuation of Mr. Medlieott’s paper on the Geology of the 
Jamu District (supra, p. 49) ; it trouts of the inner hand of the Sirmur group ,* and the 
rocks lying between them and the valley of Kashmir. The country lying in this area embraces 
part of the lower hills formed of the lower tertiary rocks, and the higher mountains com¬ 
posed of older rocks which divide Kashmir from the outer hills. Mr. Drew ( Jamoo and 
Kashmir Territories, chaps, i and vi) has divided the mountain systems of the district into 
the regions of the “ outer hills”; and of the “ middle mountainsdivisions coinciding very 
frequently with the geological boundaries. 
Notices of the geology of parts of this district have already appeared in various publica¬ 
tions; the chief of which are— 
Wynne, Records, Geological Survey of India.—Vol. VII, p. 04. 
Verehere, J. A. S. B, Vols. XXXV—VI. 
Godwin-Austen, G. J, G. S. L., Vol. XXII, p. 29, and Vol. XX, p. 383. 
The physical features of that part of the district which is external to the division 
between the Sirmur and older rocks are very similar to those which occur in Mr. Medlicott’s 
country. Along the whole of the above boundary the general dip of the Sirm&r rocks is 
north-east or towards the older rocks—a feature prevalent for hundreds of miles along the 
Sub-Himalayas; and, except where anticlmals occur, the outer bands of the same rocks have 
also generally the same dip. The outcrops are usually abrupt and steep, presenting a very 
characteristic banded appearance: owing to the frequency of the north-east dip, the northern 
sides of the hills are usually those the most covered with vegetation. 
In looking over the country from one of the higher inner passes, such as the Rattan 
Pir or the Ilaji Pir, the inliers of the “Great Limestone” of Mr. Medlicott are seen stand¬ 
ing up as bold rugged cliffs, towering high above the rocks of the tertiary series, and easily 
distinguished from them by their “ rocky” appearance. 
It is, I think, a character very prevalent among the red rocks, that the higher ridg -s 
have generally a comparatively flat dip, while the rivers have excavated their valleys along- 
lines where the dip approaches the vertical. 
Along the inmost boundary of the Sirmur group there is a sudden break between these 
rocks and the inner metamorphic series ; the general dip of the former towards the latter 
group seems to show that this junction as it now exists is faulted. I Lave never seen any 
instance where I could distinctly assert that the red rocks had been deposited unconformably 
against the base of a cliff of metamorphics; and although I have not found any traces of 
the former overlying the latter beyond the fault, I cannot help thinking that such an exten¬ 
sion must originally have been the case to a certain extent, and that the present relationship 
of the two has been brought about by subsequent up-or-down-thrusts. 
In the extreme west of my district the red rocks are bounded by the confused limestones 
and shales of tbo nummulitic and oolitic series ; owing to the beat of the season, I was 
able to proceed up the Ivishengunga valley to see the relations of these nummulitic lime- 
I use the term “ Sirmfir” as convenient and unambiguous for the whole lower portion of the tertiary series, 
although it has not been geologically deilned in the region under notice, as it is to east of the Ravi. The term 
Mari (Murree) has been more especially applied to tho supra-numniulitic zone, the equivalent in the west of the 
Dugshai, or perhaps the Dugshni and portions of the east. This zone, with the upper part of the Subathu group, 
may also be sometimes indicated generally as "the red rocks." 
