1834.] 



Range for the Culture of the Tea Plant. 



183 



r 



\ N 



2J c c d c c c c a 



(a) level of the sea at Calcutta ; (b) level of Sehiiranpur, 1000 feet above the 

 sea ; (cc) the Sewdlik hills ; (cV) the strata of sandstone and conglomerate ; (c"c") 

 strata of gravel ; (dd) the valley of D£hra ; (ee) strata of the Sewalik hills, in 

 some places rising on the Himalayas ; (ff) outer ridges of the Himalayas ; (gg) pri- 

 mary strata ; (h) the valleys or hollows between the ridges. 



I regard these hills as an upheaved portion of the plains at the foot 

 of the Himalayas, and that they are formed of the debris of the mountains 

 washed down by streams, and other natural causes. They are covered 

 with vast forests of saul, toon, and fir, and are uninhabited. 



The soil of the Sewalik hills and of the valley of Dehra takes the 

 character of the rocks. It is dry sandy or gravelly, with a considerable 

 quantity of calcareous matter, and it appears to me to possess the cha- 

 racter indicated for the tea districts in China. 



The great chain of the Himalayas rises in a ridge with an abrupt 

 steep face against the plains of about 6000 feet in height ; there is then 

 a slope from the crest of the ridge towards the north. This is the 

 general character of the Himalayas : the mountains on the side of the 

 snowy range consist of a series of nearly parallel ridges, with inter- 

 mediate valleys or hollows. They throw off spurs in all directions into 

 the hollows, forming subordinate valleys. There is nothing like table- 

 land (perhaps in the whole of the mountains, with the exception of Ni- 

 pal), and the valleys are rather broad, wedge-shaped chasms, contracted 

 at the bottom to a mere water-course, than any thing else ; in fact, the 

 ridges and intermediate valleys, as a general law, form a series of salient 

 and re-entrant angles, as seen in the sketch. In consequence the 

 quantity of level or nearly level ground to be met with is most inconsi- 

 derable. From the dip or slope being towards the north, and the 

 abutment to the south steep, the great mass of vegetation has a northern 

 exposure, and the southern faces of the mountains are generallynaked. 



The formations are primary ; the first towards the plains consist of 

 vast strata of limestone, lying on clay-slate, crowned by slate, greywacke, 

 or sandstone. Beyond the limestone tract, gneiss, clay-slate, and other 

 schistose rocks occur. Granite, so far as I know, is not found in the outer 

 ridges. It occurs in the mountains nearer the snowy range. I have 

 not gone that length, and have not yet seen granite in situ. The igneous 

 rocks, which have been concerned in the upheavement of the outer tracts, 

 are of the green-stone trap series, and are very generally met with in 



