Note on the Distribution of Soils, fyc. 237 



therefore, agreeably to the general observation above made, 

 the lands upon it should partake of the nature of those 

 on that river ; though the main portion of its stream 

 comes from the lower range of the Nipal hills, and is thus 

 so far independent of the great Gunduk, it also draws a 

 part of its supply from the latter river in the rains, and the 

 lands bordering on it are of a mixed nature ; in fact we may 

 consider the characteristic of the soil bordering on the 

 little Gunduk as calcareous when nearest the great Gunduk, 

 but siliceous as it approaches the Dewa. 



It strikes me that the portions of the country where silice- 

 ous soils prevail, abound more in kunkur beds or ridges 

 than where the calcareous soils are met with, however they 

 may only be concealed in the latter case; but admitting 

 the matter to be as now stated, a query arises as to whether 

 the lime incorporated with the soil in the Bhat division 

 of the country has in the Bangar portions been drawn 

 down, while the country was in a state of submersion, to form 

 the kunkur beds which are there met with ? Another ques- 

 tion occurs — how came the kimkur bed to be formed at all ? 

 Were the nodules in which it is generally found, formed on 

 shells as nuclei ? In looking at some of the kunkur knolls in 

 this district, one would readily fancy they originated in this 

 way, the ground work of them being from the materials of 

 shell fish, &c. 



As this Bhat deposit is confined to the country of the 

 great Gunduk and its branches, being bounded on the east, 

 as I am well informed, by the Bhogmuttee in Tirhoot, and 

 extending down the little Gunduk in that portion of the 

 country to nearly opposite to Mongyr (and let it be ob- 

 served there are two little Gunduks, one to the east and 

 another to the west of the great Gunduk) the appearances 

 now mentioned might be accounted for by supposing a series 

 of high floods in the great Gunduk, which caused it to fill 

 and overflow its own bed, and that of other streams to which 

 it may have had access, occasioned, say, by the bursting of 



