14 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
33rd, Lamayuru, crossing the Fotu-la. —Leaving Kharbu, the triassic limestones pass 
over to the right hank of the stream after the second or third mile, where the stream makes 
a bend; but further on the carboniferous shales occupy the whole of the right and the base 
of the left bank, the limestones keeping to the greater heights. The diluvial conglomerate 
is locally of great extent; and in ascending the Eotu-la, it reaches to within about 200 feet 
of the top of the pass, that is, up to about 13,200. On the Eotu-la the southern hills are 
trias limestone. The pass itself is formed of carboniferous shales; and these shales extend 
down to Lamayuru. Unfortunately I could not find any fossils in them. 
24th, Snurla on the Indus. —Eor more than a mile after leaving Lamayuru there are 
extensive shaly deposits, some of them well stratified; they reach to about 300 feet high on 
the slopes. The shales are at first in places very carbonaceous, and when decomposed they 
are covered with a white efflorescence of soda and alum. About two miles or a little more 
further on, these carbonaceous shales overlie nearly vertically bedded green and red shales; 
the latter alternate with beds of strong green sandstone, very similar to the 44 green-rock,” 
and the whole group evidently represents the Bhabeh. series, just as the former does the Muth 
series. In one place only I saw, in the Bhabeh slates, a bit of an impression, something like 
a portion of a Trilohite; and in another place I got a few traces of worms. These Bhabeh 
slates, shales, and sandstones are variously contorted, but for the most part approach the 
vertical position, dipping highly towards south or south-west. Towards the Indus the 
Bhabeh series is cut off by serpentines, which reach down to the valley. Only in one place, 
I think, there is a portion of syenite left, the ground about a mile from the Indus being 
strewn with boulders of syenite. The opposite bank of the Indus is occupied by greenish 
and reddish slates and sandstones—evidently the treacherous tertiary rocks, like in North 
Rupshu and Zaskar. The bridge across the Indus to Khalchi is built over serpentine, and 
there are a good many patches of serpentine also on the right bank, and near these the 
sandstones and shales appear to be almost metamorphic. There is also, about half-way 
between Khalchi and Snurla, a lump or two of a grey or bluish limestone, full of bivalves. It 
looks triassic; still I do not know how it could be that. Eragments of it were locally full of 
large pelecypods and indistinct gastropod traces, and in some round rolled fragments I 
thought I saw nummulites, but I cannot be sure of it. Similar lumps of the same limestone 
I saw in the serpentine region before reaching the Indus, and it is just possible that some of 
the slates and sandstones here are really tertiary. I rather think this very probable. At 
Snurla the tertiary slates and shales, greenish and reddish beds alternating with each other, 
occupy both banks of the Indus, mostly dipping at high angles towards the south. Conglom¬ 
erates are locally to be found reaching to a couple of hundred feet or less along the whole 
road. 
25th, Saspul. —All the way we passed through the tertiary red and greenish shales and 
sandstones, mostly along the strike of the rocks, which dip at a high angle of between 60° 
and 80° to south-west or south by west. The crystalline rocks appear to occupy the hills 
above Himis. Diluvial conglomerate is extensively developed along the river, and particularly 
about Saspul. 
25th and 26th, Saspul to Leh. —The same rocks for the greatest part of the distance; the 
gneiss and hornblendic gneiss do not touch the river till just before Pittuk, beyond the village 
of Phayang. The diluvial deposits are very extensive, and are very thick just east of 
Snemo. 
