176 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



is only the highest point of the Tartaric plain, running up to 

 the Himalayah peaks.' 



From the details given by Moorcroffc, it is very clear that 

 the upper stratum of this great plain consists of a deep allu- 

 vial deposit — whatever the age of the alluvium may be — 

 composed of beds of clay and gravel. He was struck, on en- 

 tering the country, with the broad flat channels of the rivers, 

 bounded by lofty steep banks, as contrasted with the narrow 

 angular beds on the Hindostani side of the mountains, being 

 precisely the shape that would be washed out by a torrent 

 running through soft unconsolidated strata. His description 

 further gives good reason to surmise that the alluvium rises 

 in successful steps like the parallel roads of Glenroy. He men- 

 tions broken ground with ravines near Dhapa, rising into pyra- 

 mids and buttresses, ' bearing no unapt resemblance to ruined 

 castles and fortifications in piles above each other.' A ravine 

 near the Tiltil river yields a section of beds of indurated clay 

 and gravel above 300 feet in elevation; the heights are 

 broken into all manner of fanciful shapes, spires, buttresses, 

 &c., the sides being excavated into habitations. There is but 

 little variation from the above in his account of the country 

 between Dhapa and Gortope, or between the latter place and 

 the Manasarovara Lake, except at Tirthapuri, where he states 

 that ' steep craggy limestone rocks in a state of decomposition 

 immediately overhang it (the village). Still higher, and 

 losing their heads in the clouds, are jDointed mountains, which 

 from their brilliant whiteness appear to consist of chalk, 

 covered here and there with a layer of yellow ochre.' Near 

 this spot he describes, in very characteristic terms, an enor- 

 mous bed of travertine, forming a table of about half-a-mile 

 in diameter, deposited from hot springs now in operation. 

 At Kienlung he met with other great travertine deposits, 

 perhaps not exceeded in extent by those hitherto observed in 

 any other part of the globe. ' The vast walls and masses of 

 rock which have been formed by the action of hot springs in 

 this neighbourhood show an antiquity that bafiies research 

 and would afibrd food for sceptics.' 



So much for the general geological features of the Hioondes 

 plain. Of the particular beds which yield the fossils we have no 

 accounts, besides the meagre details which may be gleaned 

 from the Bhoteah merchants, who describe them as occurring 

 in broken ground with ravines, upon the surface of which they 

 are seen projecting or strewed over patches where the earth 

 has been washed away by riUs formed by melting snow. The 

 specimens have rarely any of the matrix attached to them, 

 but where it exists it is usually of coarse sand or gravel, 

 agglutinated by a calcareous paste which effervesces strongly 

 with the mineral acids. 



