132 ■ KHASI HILLS. 



I have before alluded to the extension of these sandstone beds towards 



the North from Lakadong. About three miles 

 And to the North. ° 



North from Rombai, slaty sandstone and dark car- 

 bonaceous shales occur nearly horizontal. They are well seen in the small 

 rivers or streams. The slaty beds are shining and micaceous. The country 

 about here and towards Rombai (a) is chiefly grassy table land, a large 

 pioportion of which is under cultivation. The same character, with the 

 interruption of a few rounded dells or glens, continues to near the village 

 of Bappung. These glens have a remarkably regular and constant direc- 

 tion, all bearing nearly due North-East and South-West, the steep scarp 

 of the rocks in all cases facing the North, while the Southern ridge slopes 

 gradually away. North of the village of Bappung, and a very short 

 distance from it, there is a well-marked ridge formed of horizontal beds 

 of sandstone, with a few shaly partings, sometimes dark-coloured, nearly 

 black and carbonaceous,' with glistening specks of mica. This ridge has 

 a curiously-rounded outline, and is eaten into regular re-entering angles 

 and bays, like a shore long exposed to the wash of the ocean waves. 

 Not far from Bappung, in a low flat depression to the West and North- 

 West, granite is seen. It is largely crystalline, and somewhat porphyritic, 

 and in general aspect very similar (though not quite so large in grain) 

 to that near Lailangkot, North of Cherra. Its connexion with the sand- 

 stones is not very clearly seen. North of this, the rounded hills are 

 again composed of horizontal sandstones occasionally conglomeratic, and 

 frequently presenting fine instances of false-bedding. This latter is 

 common also In the beds to the South. 

 Similar sandstones and conglomerates are seen stretching along the 



top of the hills, bounding the valley of the Men- 

 Mentedoo.^ ey o t e ^^q^qq Kiyer, in horizontal beds, resting uncon- 



formably on the up-turned and degraded edges of 



(a) About four miles North from Rombai, pines (Pinus chinenm) first appear ; they 

 become plentiful, large and healthy, a little North of Bappung. 



