GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON ASSAM. 4.1 



enjoyed a distinctive title ; while these can only be spoken of in seg- 

 ments by the names of the local tribes— GarrowSj Cossyahs^ JynteahSj 

 Meekirs, Nagas^ &c., &c. ; there being no kind of natural demarcation 

 between the several areas so designated. The proximity of the mighty 

 Himalaya may perhaps account for this neglect. The more abstruse 

 physical geographers may have been doubtful whether these hills might 

 not belong to the Himalayan system ; their position to some extent lends 

 itself to this view, while simpler orographers may have looked upon 

 them as a spur or continuation of the greater, but unknown, moun- 

 tain region to the east. From the legitimate stand-point of physical 

 geography, the latter is the correct aspect; as an uninterrupted hill- 

 mass, influencing together the actual distribution of phenomena in 

 this region of the earth^s surface, the great western promontory can 

 scarcely be separated from the mass with which it is continuous. In 

 the endeavours, which are now so much in vogue, to popularize 

 science, and in forced illustration of the correlation of all things, geology 

 and geography have undergone a great deal of mutual inconvenience. 

 The region under consideration seems to offer some very instructive 

 evidence of how little actual geological observation confirms some too 

 hasty speculations of the physico-geographer : we have here most ex- 

 tensive phenomena of disturbance, the resultant features of which seem 

 due to the influences of local, I may almost say, superficial, secondary 

 causes. And, on the other hand, these hills exemphfy how entirely 

 inadequate and unsuited the simpler considerations of superficial geogra- 

 phy are for the requirements of geology ; whether on the score of the age 

 or the condition of the rocks, a large portion of this mountain area 

 must be markedly separated from the rest ; and it is not yet apparent 

 how far either may be affiliated to the rock-phenomena of the Himalaya. 

 The division here indicated is roughly marked by the valley of |ihe 

 The Sliillong table- ^^unseeree. To the west of this river tve find, 

 ^^'^^' quite horizontal, some of the same strata lohich 



to the east are uniformhj in a state of extreme disturbance. Tlius 

 F ( 427 ) 



