136 SUB-HTMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAP. IV. 



the great rivers, one is surprised to find no such relation here, the Sutlej 

 being at present the mightiest of these mountain torrents. Where 

 the conglomerate beds intersect the Sutlej, about four miles north of 

 Belaspur, all the large boulders are of the hard purple sandstones 

 of the Subathu group, and even the softer, fossiliferous, nummulitic 

 strata are represented among the debris. We find on the spot 

 the most complete means of comparison ; over the whole valley of 

 Belaspur, and capping hills to a height of 2 to 300 feet, there is a 

 coarse diluvial boulder conglomerate, evidently the work of the Sutlej 

 at some remote period, the boulders being thoroughly water-worn, 

 and composed of siliceous, metamorphic rocks. The first idea that 

 suggests itself in explanation of the difficulty is that these deposits are of 

 much older date, and that denudation had not at that time carved out 

 the actual drainage system so deeply that the more distant debris could 

 reach so far. This notion is strengthened when we see that the influence 

 of the great rivers as described to the east is not peculiar to that region : 

 the Sivalik conglomerates at Bubhor are most distinctly traceable 

 to the Sutlej in its actual position. The contrasting composition remains, 

 no doubt, in proof of the different, and of course, greater age of the 

 Belaspur conglomerates as compared with those at Bubhor, but a further 

 comparison compels us to modify the generality of the inference, and 

 to attach all the interest of the peculiarity to the special history of the 

 Sutlej. The conglomeritic bands of the Gumber and the Gumrola 

 are continuously traceable to the Beas, but we do not find there the 

 same peculiarities. About Likwanu, at the head of the Sher Khud, 

 even south of the present watershed between the Sutlej and the Beas, 

 the crushed and highly inclined conglomerates, which there is no shadow 

 of reason for thinking of different age to those at Belaspur, contain only 

 debris of metamorphic and granitic rocks. This fact explains the some- 

 what paradoxical assertion, previously made, that the classification 

 of these rocks would depend upon the direction in which the observer 



