182 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CliAP. VII. 



and the water necessarily soaks in the same direction ; the crushed rocks 

 along the junction of the formations, running nearly along the centre of 

 the ridge, act as a conduit and receptacle for this water. The case of 

 the Kasaoli ridge may be seen in Fig. 2, p. 18; the unbroken strata of 

 sandstone dip at a high angle in one direction; the side of the ridge along 

 which these beds crop out is almost a sheer cliff. Failure in such a 

 place might have been anticipated. It was shown, however, that the 

 conditions of the rocks at Simla are more favourable. Jako is a broad 

 massive hill, rising more than 500 feet over the point where the water 

 is most needed ; it is well wooded and deeply covered with soil ; the 

 rocks are soft, decomposing schists, and are a good deal crushed and 

 waved. The authorities were persuaded to give the experiment a trial 

 here, and they have been rewarded with success. A tunnel was made 

 to the depth of 800 feet, when a sufficient supply was obtained. 

 It has now stood the test of two dry seasons. Under proper direc- 

 tion, the system might be extended with more or less of advantage to 

 most of the hill stations. I know none of them so unfavourably circum- 

 stanced as Kasaoli. 



Pure water, and plenty of it, is such a desideratum in the plains, as 

 well as in the hills of India, and especially at the great military stations, 

 that the attainment of it might, I think, be made an object of experi- 

 ment, even if costly and at considerable risk of failure. With this in 

 view, it has often occurred to me that these plains, at all events the 

 portions of them within a moderate distance of the hills, are, or at least 

 may be (for the unseen chances are numerous), favourably circumstanced 

 for artesian wells. There is not indeed the basin-shaped arrangement of 

 the strata as in the typical examples of the London and Paris basins, 

 but there is someiJhing equivalent. The slope of the plains is steady and 

 considerable from the foot of the hills southwards. The arrangement of 

 the strata, according to the best received views upon the plains' deposits, 

 is also favourable; they probably have a gentle slope of deposition, some- 



