INTRODUCTION. 



13 



during a comparatively recent geological sera, and of a vast 

 series of ages having transpired during their deposition up to 

 the period of their uj^heavement. Their coincidence with the 

 great chain of the Himalayahs in parallelism, line of direction, 

 similarity of dip, in contrast with the opposite nature of their 

 rocks, connect them closely with the ingenious speculations 

 of Elie de Beaumont, regarding the seras of upheavement of 

 parallel mountain chains. 



The Jumna- Gangetic portion has already attracted the at- 

 tention of Indian geologists. The first published account of 

 them, so far as I am aware, is by Lieut. Cautley, Sui^erintendent 

 of the Doab Canal, who in vol. xvi. of the 'Asiatic Researches,' 

 has given a very accurate description of the mineral characters 

 of the strata, in connection with the occurrence of coal and lig- 

 nite, which first attracted his attention. It is to his zeal that 

 we are indebted for the discovery of animal organic remains in 

 the Sewalik hills. Captain Herbert, in the same volume of the 

 'Researches,' has described the tract from the Sutlejto the Kali 

 rivers, and enters fully on the nature of the coal or lignite met 

 with there. He seems to have formed the opinion that the for- 

 mation is that of the rock marl or new red sandstone of Eng- 

 land. Dr. Govan, in a paper on the Physical Geography of the 

 Himalayahs, has given a brief sketch of the lower hills. He 

 considers them as belonging to the oldest of Buckland's alluvial 

 deposits.' The lower hills were examined by Mons. Jacque- 

 mont in 1831, but I am not aware that any account of them 

 by him has been published. 



The Himalayah mountains north of the valley of Deyra 

 consist of primary stratified rocks, dipping towards the east 

 of north ; their abutment is to the south. Their line of direc- 

 tion is from NW. to SE. or thereabouts. The rocks consist 

 chiefly of argillaceous schists and vast beds of limestone. 

 The strata are inclined at a high angle. The mountains 

 here at once rise with an abrupt mural front to about 7,000 ft. 

 above the level of the sea, and 6,000 above the plains in the 

 neighboTU-hood. No organic remains have as yet been met 

 with in the outer ridges in the tract between the Sutlej and 

 the Ganges, or on this side of the snowy range. ^ Of the un- 

 stratified rocks, greenstone traps, which were first, so far as I 

 know, observed by Lt. Cautley, occur in considerable abund- 



• Brewster's Journal of Science for 

 1825, vol. ii. p. 32. 



''■ In my possession there is a small 

 spiral-chambered univalve, closely re- 

 sembling a Turritella, which I received 

 from my friend Lt. Vicary, a most zealous 

 and indefatigable traveller in the Hima- 

 layahs. Mr. Vicary met with it near 

 Mussooree. The specimen was put by, 



without the fossil being observed till 

 several days after. Mr. Vicary could not 

 subsequently hit upon the spot where it 

 was found, and as it might have been 

 broken from a boulder, I have, pending 

 the uncertainty about the matrix in 

 which it occurred, attached no import- 

 ance to the fossil till it should have been 

 met with again in situ. 



