HAMILTON, CANADA.-The Hamilton Association. HARRISBURG.-Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. Literary and Philosophical Society. MELBOURNE.-Department of Mines and Water-Supply, Victoria. MILAN.-Royal Institute of Science, Lombardy. Society of Natural Science. MONTREAL.-Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. Royal Society of Canada. Moscow.-Imperial Society of Naturalists. NAPLES.-Academy of Science. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.-North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. NEW HAVEN.-The Editors of the "American Journal of Science." Geological Society of France. PENZANCE.-Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. American Philosophical Society. Franklin Institute. ROORKEE.-Thomason College of Civil Engineering. ST. PETERSBURG.-Geological Commission of the Russian Empire. SALEM MASS.-American Association for the Advancement of Science. SAN FRANCISCO.-California Academy of Sciences. SHANGHAI.-China Branch, Royal Asiatic Society. SYDNEY.-Australian Museum. Department of Mines, New South Wales. Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum. TORONTO.-Canadian Institute. TURIN.-Royal Academy of Sciences. VENICE.-Royal Institute of Science. VIENNA. Imperial Academy of Sciences. The Governments of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the Punjab. Chief Commissioners of Assam and Burma. The Commissioner of Northern India Salt Revenue. The Resident at Hyderabad. Foreign, Home, and Revenue and Agriculture Departments. Field-notes from Afghánistán: (No. 4)--from Túrkistán to India, by C. L. GRIESBACH. Introduction.-The return march of the Afghán Boundary Commission to India, over the Hindu Kúsh and through Kabul, completed my geological reconnaissance of Afghánistán, and it has in a certain degree connected my work with that of my colleagues on the north-western frontier of India. As I have had nearly always to conform closely to the movements and march of the Commission, opportunities for geological observations were naturally extremely limited, but my chief regret in connection therewith is, that I could not devote more time to the country lying north of the Hindu Kúsh. I received permission to march to Charikár in advance of the Mission head-quarters, which moved two days behind me. I therefore left the Tangi Shadián (southeast of Balkh) on the 18th September 1886, and marched through Tashkhurghan and Haibak to Ghori, which is one of the districts of Badakhshán. Thence I went over the Chahárdar pass to Siáh Gird, from where I made an excursion to Farinjal. From Búrj-i-Gúl-Ján I was recalled to meet H. B. M.'s Commissioner at Siáh Gird. The remainder of the march to India brought us through Charikár and Kabul by the Khaibar route to Peshawar, where we arrived on the 1st November, having altogether been absent from India two years and two months. Physical Geography.-Regarding the geographical features of the country north of the Hindu Kush which I traversed on this return march, there is little to say in addition to the description given in my last paper of the area between Bamián and Tashkhurghan. Between Haibak and the Chahárdar pass I crossed the south-west corner of Badakhshan, the general physical characters of which may be said to be a continuation of the country between Haibak and the main watershed. It is drained by the headwaters and affluents of the Kundúz and Aksarai rivers; the latter in its upper course being known as the Súrkh Rúd. I had to cross its main branch near Dahána Iskár, where I found it a considerable volume of water, flowing in a deep valley of erosion. Numerous smaller streams drain from the main range of the Hindu Kúsh into the Súrkh Rúd, and most of these deep branch-valleys form routes to and over the Hindu Kúsh into the valley of the Ghorband river, which with its many branches forms one of the headwaters of the Kabul river. Orographical and geotectonic features.-The outline description which I have given of the ranges between Bamián and the Túrkistán plain in my former report, equally applies to the entire section between India and the Oxus, as far as regards the general character and origin of the hill ranges. That is to say, it is a more or less continous succession of anticlinals between Attock on the Indus and the plains of Túrkistán, arranged in lines running more or less from west to east. These are accompanied by outbursts of igneous rocks along far stretching fissures of probably post-cretaceous age amongst which syenitic granite and traps are most conspicuous. The lines of fissure correspond generally with the direction of the anticlinals, although at several points the reverse is clearly seen. Whether the latter case holde C good in the ranges which form the system of the north-east Hindu Kúsh and the ranges of Kafiristán I cannot say, but think it is probable. Intrusions along lines of fissures, some of them on a very large scale, are seen in the Hindu Kush range, the Paghmán hills, the hills around Kabul and east of that city where they form the eastern Lataband and many of the minor ranges on the route to India. Anticlinals of the Kara Koh and Karmard-The high anticlinals of the Kara Koh and the Karmard neighbourhood flatten out considerably as they strike eastwards, forming wide depressed table lands between the lines of folds. Such for instance are the flats south-east of Haibak and Ghori, which are divided by widely arched anticlinals. South of Ghori the cretaceous rocks, which form the main mass of the country, rise again into a series of wide arches, which are eventually lost or at least very much obscured by the eruptive rocks of the Hindu Kúsh. The Zindjitak Kotal for instance leads over one of these wide anticlinals, the southern flank of which is denuded by the system of the Súrkh Rúd. The Hindu Kúsh is formed probably by a system of parallel flexures, which result in a series of separate ranges as it were, but the structure is greatly obscured by intrusive igneous rocks, chiefly hornblendic granite, which has altered the neighbouring formations into metamorphic-schists. The main mass of the Hindu Kúsh is a mighty chain with elevations of from 14 to 16,000 feet even in its south-western portion, and it bears distinct traces of having undergone extensive glaciation in recent geological times. The eastern half of my last section in Afghánistán belongs to the drainage of the Indus, by the basin of the Kabul river, which with its many affluents has deeply eroded the southern slopes of the Hindu Kúsh and the ranges south and east of it. The country still bears the same character of great anticlinal folds forming parallel ranges, with intrusions of granite and trap which have metamorphosed the greater part of the sedimentary strata composing these ranges. Here the general strike of the intrusions is across the direction of the anticlinals, being mostly in a line from south-west to north-east, whereas the direction of the anticlinals is nearly uniformly from west to east. Literature. The literature relating to matters connected with the geology or mineral resources of Afghánistán is very limited, and is mostly confined to descriptions of places and districts on the frontier or of Southern Afghánistán. The only authors which I found treating of geological matters connected with Northern Afghánistán are the following: P. B. LORD-Some account of a visit to the plain of Koh-i-Dámán, the mining J. PRINSEP-Report on ten specimens of coal from Capt. Burnes. Jour. As. Major Vicary-On the geology of the Upper Punjab and Peshawar. Quart. DR. A. FLEMING-On the Geology of part of the Sulimán range. Quart. Jour. CAPT. HAY-Fossil shells discovered in the neighbourhood of Bajgáh, E. E. DRUMMOND-On the mines and mineral resources of Northern Afghánis- H. B. MEDLICOTT-On geológical specimens from Afghánistán. As. Soc. Beng., 1880, page 3. Proc. H. B. MEDLICOTT-On rock-salt from the Kuram valley. Proc. As. Soc. Geology. The geological structure of the section between Türkistán and Peshawar is simple, in spite of the great changes which have taken place near the numerous intrusions of igneous rocks. The prevailing rocks belong. still to the upper cretaceous period, mostly in the form of hard limestones covering with a thick skin the greater part of the area traversed. Below this, where deep erosion combined with high flexure has exposed the base of the cretaceous series, some members of the older formations appear. The "red grits" and dark shales of the upper jurassics are easily recognized, and are seen at several places; but only at one spot, on the Fazák or Bazák pass north of the Chahárdar pass in the Hindu Kúsh, did I see any rock, which could be identified as older than jurassic. The rock in question is, I believe, carboniferous, and is an eastern continuation of the Palú Kotal (near Bamián) carboniferous limestone. The greater part of the country between the Hindu Kúsh and Attock shows little more than metamorphic and igneous rocks, in which only here and there shoals, as it were, of the upper beds of the mesozoic series were left intact, and those often are highly metamorphosed. Part of the return march to India, namely the distance from Shadián to Haibak, was over ground I had already visited and described.1 Description of section between Shadián and India.-Starting from Shadián, southeast of Balkh, I descended into the Bactryan plain, part of the great valley of the Oxus, now filled with tertiary and recent strata and which is in process of dividing into two separate and parallel valleys. I have had no better opportunity this time of examining in detail the tertiary beds of Tashkhurghan. In lithological character the Tashkhurghan series is not distinguishable from the Mathar or Bamián rocks. On a base of lower tertiaries and miocene marine clays 2 rests an enormous thickness of freshwater beds, chiefly buff and reddish coloured hard clays and sandstone, plant shales and grits, belonging to one structural whole and which I include in the pliocene series. They rest with their older tertiary base conformably on the upper cretaceous (Exogyra) limestone, and are with the latter contorted and raised up, here and there even vertically. Near Tashkhurghan the hard Exogyra limestone beds pass at an angle of about 75° to 80° under the tertiaries, the whole series being favourably exposed by the Tashkhurghan river which forms a transverse valley (one of the finest gorges in Túrkistán) through the entire series. The road to Haibak leads along the valley of this river, which cuts transversely through the whole system of flexures. Apparently there is a wide open synclinal north of Haibak which is bounded on the north by several narrow anticlinals and sharp folds. Inside the synclinal north of Haibak some members of the tertiary 1 Rec., Vol. XIX, page 235. Mr. Ney Elias brought specimens of Ostrea multicostata, Desh. var., from the beds of Tashkhurghan. It is a miocene species, identical with similar forms found in the Herat province and at Kilif. |