Chap. VII] economic geology. 183 



Avhat greater than the slope of the plains, and in the same direction. . 

 There are probably coarse and more porous beds overlapped by finer and 

 retentive deposits ; a large portion of the water that is known to be 

 absorbed along the gravel deposits, which everywhere occur along the 

 base of the Sivaliks, may be, I think must be, carried down to saturate 

 these lower beds. It is certainly difficult to take .account of what 

 complications in stratigraphical arrangements may occur in the Sivalik 

 rocks below the plains' deposits, or to say how these might affect the 

 scheme we are considering. It is probable that the contortions which 

 affect these rocks so powerfully where we last see them, continue for a 

 considerable distance to the south. They may rise into underground 

 ridges, which would considerably interfere with the regularity of the 

 succeeding deposits, and so dam up the underground circulation. For 

 instance, there might be a steady ridge of this kind a short way to the 

 north of Meerut, nicely capped by stiff clay beds of the overlying series, 

 and thus effectually cutting off the source of supply. It seems likely, 

 however, from the complete disappearance of these rocks beyond a well- 

 defined line, that they are deeply buried beneath the deposits of the 

 plains. As regards the plains' deposits themselves, there are also some 

 important points upon which our information is vague. Even grantino- 

 the general prevalence of coarser and more porous strata at the base, it 

 may be asserted that the stratification is so irregular, and the interlap- 

 ping of porous and non-porous beds so complete, as to render impossible 

 the existence of an artesian water basin, and that therefore the actual 

 water level is the highest that can be obtained. I know of but one 

 observation bearing upon this question, and it even is not entirely in 

 favour of either side ; it shows, at least, that partial artesian water-basins 

 do exist — water-bearing strata, in which the water has some ascentional 

 power. I have been told by an engineer, that in sinking a well sixty 

 or seventy feet deep (I regret that I have mislaid my memorandum of 

 the exact conditions), after passing through a bed yielding impure water, 



