1875.] J. Butler — Bough Notes on the Angdmi Ndgds. 329 



Chapter III. 

 Geology and Natural History. 



As regards the geology and physical aspect of the country occupied by 

 the Angamis and their neighbours, I cannot do better than quote from a 

 report from the talented pen of my friend Major Godwin- Austen who states 

 as follows : 



" The dead level portion of the Dhansiri valley comes to an end a few 

 miles to the west of Dimapur, and at a very short distance towards Sama- 

 guting. The surface gradually rises over the broad conglomerate deposits, 

 swept down out of the gorges of mountain streams like the Diphii-pani. 

 The first line of hills rise abruptly to 2000 feet with a strike with the strata 

 north-east and south-west, dipping south-east towards the main range at 

 about 30° on the crest, the dip increasing rapidly northwards until nearly 

 perpendicular at the very base, probably marking a great uninclinal bend 

 in the rocks. These consist of sandstones, very thickly bedded in the upper 

 portion, of red and ochre colour, interstratified with thinner beds of an 

 indurated light coloured clay, nodules of which are very numerous and 

 conspicuous in some of the soft sandstones. In exposed sections, such as 

 that near the new tank at Samaguting, the strata are seen to be closely fault- 

 ed in direction of the strike, the up-throw never exceeding a few feet. These 

 beds I should refer to the Siwalik series. No mammalian remains have as 

 yet been found in the neighbourhood. Nowhere is a better and more com- 

 prehensive view obtained of the broad alluvial valley of the Dhansiri and 

 its great forest than from Samaguting. Mile beyond mile of this dark 

 forest stretches away and is lost in the distant haze. During the cold 

 weather this is, usually in the early morning, covered with a dense woolly 

 fog, which about 10 o'clock begins to roll up from the Brahmaputra against 

 the northern slope of the Barrail, and often hangs over Samaguting and all 

 the outer belt of hills late into the afternoon, when the increasing cold dis- 

 sipates it. The sandstone ridge, on which Samaguting is situated, runs 

 parallel with the Barrail at a distance of 15 to 16 miles, measured from 

 crest to crest. The Barrail rises very suddenly on its northern face, and the 

 intervening country for a breadth of 8 miles is very low, forming a miniature 

 dhun. This intermediate depression continues westward for many miles : 

 the outer range marked by the hills of Phegi and Laikek. It terminates 

 to the eastward on the Kadiuba spur, thrown off from the high north-east 

 extremity of the Barrail, and this spur coincides with the great east up- 

 throw of the Sub-Himalayan rocks composing the highest part of that range, 

 and this I believe is a great north-north-west — south-south-east dislocation 

 in the mountain mass, marked by the course and gorge of the Zubja. This 

 dislocation is, I think, also intimately connected with the change in direc- 



