390 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



admitted fact that their almost fantastic lines suggested the well- 

 known Kashmir shawl pattern, to which they bear a distinct 

 resemblance. 



Among instances of river action on a stupendous scale there 

 are two which deserve special notice, one a scene of action, the 

 other illustrating results. The first of these is the Colorado 

 River in America, and the second the Indo-Gangetic Valley in 

 Upper India. In the former case it is estimated by leading 

 American authorities that the area of maximum denudation is from 

 13,000 to 15,000 square miles, and that the average depth of the 

 strata removed was about 10,000 feet. The wondei'ful results of 

 river action are here placed in a startling light on examination of 

 a typical section of the Grand Canon. This consists first of a 

 chasm from five to six miles in width and two thousand feet deep, 

 beneath which is a second chasm three thousand feet deep and 

 from three thousand to four thousand feet in width from crest to 

 crest. The rocky sides of the lower chasm, which constitutes the 

 present river channel, are almost vertical ; while those of the 

 upper chasm which are also steep and rocky have been so 

 sculptured by erosion and atmospheric action as to give them the 

 appearance of immense towers and battlements. Whether it is 

 regarded as an instance of the wonderful results of river action 

 and denudation combined, or taken as a specimen of the grandest 

 description of mountain architecture, the scene presented by the 

 Gi'and Canon of the Colorado is probably without a parallel. 



The transition from the Canons of the Colorado to the Indo- 

 Gangetic Valley affords a contrast as complete as could well be 

 imagined. It is a change from one of Nature's grandest quarries, 

 where the excavation and transport of material is being carried 

 on with varying but unceasing energy, to a scene of monotony 

 and sameness, where nothing is more striking than the complete 

 absence of the picturesque, and where the traveller can go many 

 hundreds of miles without crossing even a hillock or seeing a 

 pebble. Yet the combined alluvial deposits of the Indus, the Ganges, 

 and the Brahmaputra, which cover an area of 300,000 square 

 miles, constitute a monument of the results of river action not 

 less remarkable than that presented by the Canons of the Colorado. 

 With the information at present available, no idea can be formed 

 of the depth of the alluvial deposits which constitute the plains 

 of Upper India. Three deep bores were put down some years ago 

 in these deposits, one at Calcutta — that is near the mouths of the 

 Ganges — the second at Umballa, which is at no great distance 

 from the ill-defined dividing line between the present drainage 

 area of the Ganges and that of the Indus, and the third in the 

 valley of the Indus, and about four hundred miles from the river's 

 mouth. The depth reached in the first of these bores was four 

 hundred and eighty-one feet, that in the second seven hundred 

 and one feet, and that in the third four hundr-ed and sixty-four 



