188 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



There can be little doubt therefore, I think, that the river was 

 fed by those streams between the Jnmna and the Sutlej which are 

 now lost in the desert and are almost dry during the greater portion 

 of the year. So dry is the Sursoottee at present, that during the 

 religious fair at Zanasur a missionary friend on one occasion saw 

 them, after bunding up the bed below the town, fill this portion of 

 the stream by artificial means with water for the pilgrims to bathe 

 in, — a ver}' heterodox proceeding on the part of a Hindoo ; for it is 

 fiowing water which is supposed to wash away sins. Had the 

 Sursoottee been thus subject to drying up, it is not reasonable to 

 suppose that it would have been the most sacred river of the Hindoos 

 some 2000 years ago. 



Reasoning thus, therefore, we can only conclude that there must 

 have been a great change in the climate, and that there has been a 

 general subsidence of the spring-levels in the neighbourhood of 

 Umballa. Another cause can be assigned for this, namely — that at 

 several places in the district there are remains of embankments 

 carried across the beds and valleys of some of the minor or secondary 

 streams. I designate them thus in contradistinction to those which 

 have their sources among the hills, and are subject to excessive 

 floods. The beds of these mountain-torrents are broad, shallow, 

 and sandy, in some instances level with the surrounding country*. 

 During floods therefore these torrents overflow their banks ; and as 

 soon as the transporting power of their water is redaced, a deposit 

 takes place, raising the land on either side of the stream. This 

 overflow spreads in a sheet of water over the plain; and the soil, being- 

 light, absorbs a great portion of this water, and the springs are 

 raised thereby, while the remainder of the water passes down these 

 secondary streams in a rather deep narrow channel. 



It was across such streams, fed by the local rainfall and this over- 

 flow, that bunds were thrown up to store up water, the remains of 

 which may be seen in several directions, as the Executive Engineer 

 of the Northern Division of the Jumna Canal informs me. By not 

 keeping up such bunds the spring levels may be reduced, if from no 

 other cause. What, however, appears to me a still greater reason 

 for the deficiency of water at Umballa is the erection of embank- 

 ments constructed to prevent this overflowing from the neighbouring 

 streams. In consequence of this the plain on which the station is 

 built is deprived of the natural supply of water which it formerly 

 had ; and this causes a still further lowering of the spring-levels, 



* A striking example of this is in the ease of the Puttri, where this torrent 

 crosses the (xanges Canal. See Sir P. Cautley on the eifect of floods in this 

 torrent and their deposits, ' Ganges Canal,' vol. i. p. 157. 



[Sir P. Cautley, in company with the late Dr. Falconer, made many 

 excellent observations, not only on the geology of the Sewalik Hills, but on the 

 valley of the Granges, some of which are recorded in the magnificent work on the 

 Granges Canal, published by the Indian Government, a copy of which is in the 

 Library of the Geological Society. Mr. T. Login was Assistant-Engineer under 

 Sir P. Cautley. Mr. Login does not agree in all respects with tlie theoretical 

 views of the " flow of water," expressed in a paper sent by A. Tylor to the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, February, 1872. — A. T.] 



