
470 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [September, 1908. - 
in pointing to a recent elevation of the Siwaliks, and I hope that 
sufficient evidence has been brought forward to convince the reader 
that the feeders of the Kosi within these hills, were, in very recent 
times, independent or semi-independent rivers flowing southwards 
through the area now occupied by the Siwaliks. 
At first sight it may appear to be strange that of all the feeders 
of the Kosi River, north of the Siwaliks, only one, the Arun, has 
maintained a way through those hills to the plains ; there 
point has been insufficient to check the course of the river, or 
possibly the erosion of the river has been able to keep pace with 
the elevation. Secondly, from time to Ses the — has been 
reinforced by the Ware ‘of other streams on each flan , and this 
reinforcement must e had a consi ee effect both on the 
still erg rer and it seems possible, but wag te ee that the exit 
re-sekeelioh the flow towards the plain. It is handily likely. I think, 
that the rate of elevation to-day is sufficient to again cause the 
damming up of the river. 
e changes detailed above are so far-reaching, startling, and 
contrary to the very slow processes of nature, as generally accepted 
by geologists, that, before proceeding further, it may be well to 
consider whether other agencies, besides that of slow growth dne 
to the depression of the plains, have not helped to effect those 
changes. 
Roughly speaking, a slow elevation of one foot in a century 
ould, in a hill, be geologically rapid ; from the term “slow eleva- 
tion” I exclude the effects of a catastrophe. We do not know, 
Siwaliks before the hose» wl of the old Kamla were deflected 
towards the Arun. The minimum growth must have been several 
feet, and it is possible that even a fifty-foot rise may have been 
insufficient to cause the deflection. We have had earthquakes in 
the interval between Kinloch’s time and our own, but sinve 1762 
no sndden earth movement has occurred which would have caused 
the changes under discussion ; Kinloch in 1767, or five years after 
the greatest earthquake which India has known in ee times, 
found a state of affairs oe which has alte ateriall 
in the last 140 years, and. although the shock of 1762 may have 
inued impercep tible alae which continued for some time. 
Since 1762 we seem to have had no convulsion of nature more 

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