224 Further account of the [Mat?, 



door may be opened, from the great number of coins that have been 

 found, to fix the probable date, when this town was inhabited. 



The level of the country does not exhibit any distinct basin or 

 hollow ; but, taking a line from the Nogaon river at the dam over the site 

 to the Muskura, one continuous slope will be found, with indentations 

 at each of the rivers ; the proximity of the lines of sandhills and their 

 directions might lead to speculations ; but these are just as well avoided ; 

 for if, as we must allow, (from finding shingle and old beds of rivers 

 many feet below the present surface,) the present surface has been con- 

 siderably raised, we have with the agency of these mountain streams, 

 and the soil acted on by winds, data sufficient to shew that the inhuma- 

 tion of a city, or whatever was at the spot in question, was nothing at all 

 extraordinary. 



It may be interesting, with reference to the constant change of sur- 

 face in this region, to mention, that when engaged in constructing a 

 bridge at the village of Gandewar, about two miles higher up the canal 

 than the Nogaon row, the difficulty of obtaining water for the works 

 was such, that I was induced to sink a shaft in the canal bed. The well 

 was sunk 30 feet to water, the upper 20 feet was through the reddish 

 sandy clay above-mentioned, below which was shingle or boulders ex- 

 actly resembling those found now in the beds of all these rivers : through 

 10 feet of this shingle water was found. This nearly corresponds with 

 the bed of shingle now laid bare south of the Belka Falls, and amongst 

 which the coin, &c. have been found, and I have no doubt that it is all 

 part of an extensive line formerly the bed of the escapes from the lower 

 mountains. If this is true, it goes far to prove a circumstance that 

 I before mentioned in a communication to the Society, that the enor- 

 mous discharge of matter from the debouchements of these lower hills 

 is, in the reduction of themselves, gradually giving a rise to the whole 

 country skirting their bases ! I may also mention, that near a village 

 named Jytpur, three miles south of theKalowala Pass, (at which pass water 

 is within 10 inches of the surface,) I sunk a well for the reasons aforesaid 

 60 feet deep through a succession of beds of shingle, and left off, finding 

 no water ! At a place six miles south of this again, water is within eight 

 feet of the the surface. This phenomenon extends apparently on the whole 

 line between the Jumna and Ganges, that is to say, water is near the 

 surface at the foot of the hills, and shews itself again near the surface about 

 10 miles south, being in the intermediate distance at a great depth. In 

 building the masonry dam on the Nogaon river, water was found at a 

 depth of 29 feet from the bed of the row ; the excavation through beds 

 of sand and clay, but no shingle. The only mark of building which has 



