154 Notes on the Geology and Physical [No. 3, 



of the perpendicular, they shew a great crushing, perhaps folding of the 

 beds. 



As we leave the higher hills for the low eminences (Tilas) the sand- 

 stones become coarser, having scattered through them strings of small 

 pebbles, as also large lumps of lignite. In one place the whole of the 

 roots and part of the trunk of a large tree were seen in the perpendi- 

 cular strata of the river bank. These last mentioned rocks evidently 

 are of lower Sewalik age, and are capped unconformahly further into 

 the plains, by masses of irregularly bedded clays and conglomerates, 

 which pass under the present alluvial surface. 



Before closing my remarks on the geology of the Jaintia Hills, 

 the nummulitic coal should be alluded to. This has long been 

 known to exist at Lakadong, and was there, I believe, once work- 

 ed. The same formation occurs at many points further east, par- 

 ticularly near Narpo, at no great distance from the Lubah river, 

 navigable for small boats ; its value has yet to be made known and 

 perhaps established. There is no reason why beds of considerable 

 extent should not, with proper search, be discovered. Its position, 

 high in the nummulitic limestone, is precisely the same as that at 

 Cherra Poonjee. This coal is no where met with east of the Lubah 

 and Umsnat rivers. 



The most striking feature of this part of the Khasia range of hills, 

 is the extremely even height of the central mass. Nowhere is this 

 so well seen as from the peaks of the north Cachar range Marangksi, 

 &c, the dead level line of the whole mass as far east as Timang 

 Hill Station, is from here most noticeable ; even the Shillong peaks 

 make hardly any shew in the distance. This central mass or high 

 table land is all of gneiss associated with granite, generally at a high 

 angle with a W. S. W. to E. N. E. strike, and the denudation it has been 

 subjected to must have been enormous prior to the secondary epoch. 

 It falls very gradually to the south for a long distance, with a last 

 sudden dip over Jaintiapur. On the north the lower levels are 

 successively reached by a series of steps, that can be followed for 

 many miles, the last descent being the greatest, corresponding to 

 the like sudden depression at Nunklow, &c. Timang and Saranthu 

 mark the limit of this table-land on the east, and overlook the far 

 lower country of the valley of the Kopili. In the Jaintia district 



