Chap. VII] economic geology. 181 



not have relinquished all probability of success. In the many scores 

 of sections I have examined in these beds, within the region from the 

 Ravee to Nairn Tal, I have never found a single gram of true coaly 

 matter. The case seems to be somewhat different far to the north-west, 

 if my conjecture be correct that the shales of Dundelee are the repre- 

 sentatives of the Infra-Krol beds. At that place there are strings of 

 anthracite-coal in the slaty shales, but the condition of the rocks is very 

 discouraging to a prosecution of the enquiry. 



Water. — The question of water-supply is one of great importance at 

 all the hill stations. The expense of carrying water up several hundred 

 feet of steep hill, on the backs of men or of mules, for the supply of a 

 large military depot, is enormous. The stations are always perched on 

 the crests of a ridge, and, of course, all the springs are at a greater or 

 less depth below, according to the nature of the stratigraphy. Some 

 years ago, in cutting a tunnel for the new road to Simla through a ridge 

 near Dugshai, the continuation of that on which Subathu is built, it was 

 found that after piercing the hill to the distance of a few yards, water issued 

 abundantly from the cutting, and continued to do so. The intelligent and 

 enterprising officer in charge of the works took up the idea that the same 

 result might be attained anywhere, and at once drew up a scheme for 

 applying his discovery to Simla and Kasaoli. An experiment was 

 sanctioned for the latter place, and the work was carried on vigor- 

 ously ; several hundred feet of tunnel were cut, but without drawing 

 the expected supply of water. The scheme was, of course, abandoned. 

 A comparison of the two sections at once explains the different 

 results. It would be difficult to imagine conditions more favourable 

 than those in the ridge of the road tunnel near Dugshai. This ridge 

 is formed by the extension, along the strike of the rocks, of the southern 

 half of the Boj mountain, as represented in Fig. 3, p. 24. The valley on 

 the north of the ridge is formed along the anticlinal bend of the Infra- 

 Krol group (c. 2 ) ; thus on both sides of the ridge the strata dip inwards, 



