72 . W. BLANFOEDj "WESTERN INDIA. [PaRT I. 



below Broach. The alluvium which formed cliffs along the river banks 

 fdist rb- ^^^ ^^^ ^^^y much consoHdated (apparently 

 ^'^'^^- through cementation by carbonate of lime)^ but the 



beds in places were seen curved as if disturbed. The curves, however, 

 so far as was seen, were always synclinal, and may perhaps have been 

 formed during the filling up of channels in the pre-existing alluvium by 

 newer deposits. All of these alluvial deposits. 



Alluvial deposits of 

 India still imperfectly howcver, require a more careful and thorough 

 known. 



search and examination for indications of their 



origin than it is practicable to give to them, while so many more im- 

 portant questions await solution. Enormous tracts are covered by them, 

 they are the richest and most thickly populated districts of the country, 

 and they are eminently deserving of study, if only for agricultural 

 purposes, for upon their distribution depends, to a great extent, the 

 kind of grain grown and consequently of food consumed by the 

 people of the country. But their geological history is still very obscure. 



Chapter 13. — Newer forms op alluvium and surface soil. 



Along the present course of the rivers, as might be expected, small 



„ „ ^ , . flats, (straths) but little above the level of the 



Small flats along pre- ^ ' 



sent course of rivers. river, and liable to flooding, oceiu' every here and 



there ; they are broader and more conspicuous in the lower parts of the 

 valleys where the fall is less. The soil upon them is usually very fertile; 

 it consists of a more sandy clay than the older alluvium, and it has not, 

 in general, a covering of black soil. It is, however, palpably formed 

 from the older alluvium and other surface soils, washed by rain into the 

 rivers, and redeposited during floods. Thus, though rarely formed 

 entirely of regur or black soil it frequently contains a large proportion 

 of it mixed with other clays and sand. 



There is nothing in the occurrence of this newer form of alluvium 

 which needs description. It is only necessary to note its occasional 



( 234 ) 



