47 2 LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS. 



shoal up, or deposit sediment, in the proportion of only 

 a foot in a century." * 



In connection with this question of flat plains con- 

 sisting of the alluvial deposits of fresh water, we deem 

 it right to call attention to the geology of the more 

 recent strata underlying the surface of the great plain 

 of Northern India. It would ill become us however, 

 to hazard any definite opinion upon so great a ques- 

 tion as the means by which this mighty table-land was 

 originally formed; at present there is not evidence to 

 enable anyone to form a decided opinion about the 

 matter, we shall therefore content ourselves with giving 

 a brief outline of the facts which have been collected 

 about it. 



" It is (says the Encyclopedia Britannicd] an alluvial 

 deposit of sandy clay, on the surface of which nothing 

 in the shape of a pebble can be found, except in the 

 immediate vicinity of the hills." f According to the 

 same authority, there is no evidence either for or 

 against its having been laid out by the sea "on the 

 one side (it proceeds to point out) it is difficult to 

 understand how so even a surface could have been 

 produced otherwise than under the sea; while on the 

 other there is a complete want of marine remains." 

 The marine remains, we venture to remark, are confined 

 to the older tertiary strata, which lie far below the 

 present level of these great plains; as is shown by 

 these rocks appearing, deflected upwards, in the way 

 we have already described in our preceding section 

 on Mountain Ranges, with such fossils in them, near 



* Richardson's Geology and its Associate Sciences, 2nd edition, p. 86, 

 f Encyclop. Brit., gth edit., Vol. xi., p. 827 (Article "Himalayas"), 

 Ibid. 



