KHASI HILLS. 109 



PooDJee, and are by no means so deeply excavated. Waterfalls also 

 are numerous ; but they partake more of the character of " forces" 

 and rapids, than the remarkable falls which rush over the precipitous 

 cliffs to the South, and which are so well seen in the valleys of Mawsmai, 

 and Mawmluh, near to Cherra, and some of which, in the height and 

 unbrokea character of the fall, are perhaps unsurpassed in the world 

 (Plate v.). 



This general character of the surface continues \o the Northern 

 edge of the plateau, where, at Nungklow, the hills drop sud- 

 denly, and almost precipitously to the level of the Boripani ri- 

 ver, (a) 



There is a tolerably continuous and level table laud, stretching East 

 and West, nearly in the parallel of Mow-phlatig, 



Tabic lanil. 'J f ^ 



and extending towards Nurtiung. Through this 

 ridge pass the deep gorges of the river Oomgot and its feeders. Still 

 furtherto the East and South, the glen of the Mentedoo is bounded by 

 the comparatively level country extending Southwards towards Laka- 

 dong, where we again meet a precipitous flank of the hills, drapping 

 down to Burghat, and thence continued by outlying minor ridges of 

 sandstone and limestone into the flat country of Jynteahpoor. 



Coincidently with this remarkable alteration in the general features 

 of the hills is an equally remarkable change in 



Geolonicnl Structure 



corres|jouds to jjlivsical their geological Structure ; the whole of the 



features. 



Northern portion of the hills from the parallel of 

 Mow-phlang (with the exception of a few isolated patches to which we 



(a J Close to the Suspension Bridge, across which the road to Assam is carried over this 

 river, there is a beautiful waterfall. It cannot be compared as to height of fall with those 

 near to Cherra, the whole fall, which is broken into two leaps, not being more than 150 fee'. 

 But in the force and massiveness of the stream, the bold dashing of the waters, the richly 

 wooded and varied outline of the hills around, and the absence of any of that feeling of 

 lameness, which always impresses the spectator in the horizontal and repeated lines of beds 

 in those around Cherra Poonjee, this fall is, I think superior to any other I have seen in 

 the Khasi Hills. It is wilder, freer and nobler. 



