24 PRACTICAL FOEEST MANAGEMENT. 



In each of these zones the geology and soil are markedly different 

 and must ba considered separately. 



1. The Himalayas. The United Provinces Himalayan 

 forests are confined to districts of Naini Tal, Alrnora and G-arhwal 

 and an area in Chakrata. In those areas the northern boundary 

 is prastically the great crystalline (granite and gneiss) axis of the 

 Himalayas, and although three rivers (the Alaknanda, the G-ori 

 and the Kali) have cut through the crystalline axis (and rise in 

 the Haimant and Muth rocks of the ancient Tethys, which are 

 found near Niti, Milam and Lipulek), there are no forests of import- 

 ance to be found in their upper reaches. Much of the great 

 crystalline axis, which contains the great peaks of the Himalayas, 

 is above the level of forest growth, but wherever the altitudes fall 

 below 12,000 feet the coniferous forests of deodar (G. deodara), 

 spruce (P. Morinda), silver fir (A. Webbiana) and blue pine (P. 

 excelsa) are to be found frequently mixed with the evergreen oaks. 



Between the crystalline rocks and the southern boundary of 

 the Himalaya (the main boundary fault of the Siwaliks) lies a 

 wide stretch of Purana or Pre-Cambrian sedimentary rocks, on 

 which the principal forest occur. These ancient rocks consist 

 of crystalline limestones, quartzites and slates of the Jaunsar or 

 Carbonaceous Series, which, over many hundreds of square miles 

 of country, have been metamorphosed into mica schists, and in 

 which great bands of belts of gneiss and trap and bosses of 

 granite are to be found. The absence of fossils throughout this 

 zone renders it impossible to correlate the different rocks with any 

 degree of certainty, and the geology of these areas has never been 

 studied in detail, except near some of the principal stations, so 

 that many gaps in their geology wait to be filled up. Osmaston 

 in his working plan for the North Garhwal division gives a 

 detailed account of the topography and geology of this tract which 

 comprises the source of the Ganges and its tributaries. 



In the great middle belt of Purana rocks are to be found 

 the important forests of ckir pine (P. longijolia), at the lower 



