6 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
The cretaceous rocks have only been found at a few localities in Spiti and Rupshu; hut the 
jurassic and liassic strata upon which they rest occupy a large area, constantly spoken of by 
Dr. Stoliczka as the Jurassic ellipse, and having an elliptical form, with the long axis in the normal 
north-west, south-east direction. These beds were traced from Spiti and Southern Rupshu 
to Zaskar, where they end out against the great granite and syenitic mass of Little Tibet. 
To the south-west the same jurassic rocks are known to exist in Northern Kumaon. Except 
close to the Karakoram pass, where liassic beds occur, and a little farther east by south in 
the Lokzhung range, capped by cretaceous rocks, 1 none of these middle and upper mesozoic rocks 
have hitherto been found in Western Tibet beyond the limit of this basin; nor have they 
hitherto been found in Kashmir proper, although some of them recur in the hills near Mari 
(Murree). 
The silurian, carboniferous, and triassic (including the rhsetic 2 ) formation have a far 
wider range, and it is probable that their altered representatives form no inconsiderable pro¬ 
portion of the metamorphic rocks, which occupy so large an area in the Indus valley and its 
neighbourhood. 
The silurian rocks on the south of the jurassic area have been traced at intervals from 
the Bhabeh pass, through Northern Lahaul and Zaskar, to the neighbourhood of Dras, and 
they are probably, in Dr. Stoliczka’s opinion, represented by some of the lower beds seen in the 
Indus valley below Leh, and in the Marka valley to the south. North-west of the jurassic area 
they have not been detected, and they may he represented by some of the metamorphic rocks. 
The carboniferous series is distinctly developed both to the south-west and north-east of 
the jurassic area in the Spiti country, and it becomes even more prominent to the north-west. 
It occupies large areas in the Indus valley south-west and west of Leh, and reappears in the 
Kashmir valley. The triassic rocks appear everywhere to overlie the carboniferous, and to 
have nearly an equal extension. 
Northern and Eastern Rupshu, to the north-east of the Spiti area, consists mainly of 
gneiss and other metamorphic rocks. The same crystalline formations form the whole of the 
range north of the Indus, from the sharp bend made by the river to the southward, north of 
Hanle, to Leh. 
In the Indus valley itself, apart from all the secondary series of the Spiti basin, sand¬ 
stones, shales, and clays are found, which have been proved to he of eocene age by the discovery 
in them of nummulites and other fossils. Where these were first observed by Dr. Stoliczka in 
Northern Rupshu, they were unfossiliferous, and their old and altered appearance made him 
suspect that they might be palaeozoic. Rut near Leh they are much newer in appearance, and 
contain fossils which prove their age. Similar beds are seen west of Leh, as far as Kargil. 
Lastly, eruptive rocks, containing serpentine, diallage, and epidote, occupy a considerable 
area around Hanle, east of Rupshu, and extend for many miles to the north-west, towards the 
Indus. Syenite is largely developed near Leh, and extends westward, towards Dras, occupying 
a considerable area about Kargil. Serpentine is associated with it. 
If we look upon the snowy range north of Simla and the Zaskar range as identical, and 
as forming the axis of the Himalayas, we may consider the palaeozoic and mesozoic rocks of 
the Indus and Spiti valleys as lying between two great metamorphic ranges—that just men¬ 
tioned and the Ladak range north of the Indus. To the north of Kashmir, however, the 
1 See note, p. 47. 
2 This formation was kept distinct by Dr. Stoliczka in his first paper, but subsequently be was disposed to unite it with the 
triassic group. 
