32 HILLS OF BEHAR. Chap. II. 



A retrospect of the ground passed over is unsatisfactory, 

 as far as botany is concerned, except as showing how- 

 potent are the effects of a dry soil and climate during one 

 season of the year upon a vegetation which has no desert 

 types. During the rains probably many more species 

 would be obtained, for of annuals I scarcely found twenty. 

 At that season, however, the jungles of Behar and 

 Birbhoom, though far from tropically luxuriant, are 

 si n gularly unhealthy . 



In a geographical point of view the range of hills 

 between Burdwan and the Soane is interesting, as being 

 the north-east continuation of a chain which crosses the 

 broadest part of the peninsula of India, from the Gulf of 

 Cambay to the junction of the Ganges and Hoogly at 

 Rajmahal. This range runs south of the Soane and 

 Kymore, which it meets I believe at Omerkuntuk ;* the 

 granite of this and the sandstone of the other, being there 

 both overlaid with trap. Further west again, the ranges 

 separate, the southern still betraying a nucleus of granite, 

 forming the Satpur range, which divides the valley of the 

 Taptee from that of the Nerbudcla. The Paras-nath range 

 is, though the most difficult of definition, the longer of the 

 two parallel ranges; the Vindhya continued as the Kymore, 

 terminating abruptly at the Fort of Chunar on the Ganges. 

 The general and geological features of the two, especially 

 along their eastern course, are very different. This 

 consists of metamorphic gneiss, in various highly inclined 

 beds, through which granite hills protrude, the loftiest of 

 which is Paras-nath. The north-east Vindhya (called 

 Kymore), on the other hand, consists of nearly horizontal 

 beds of sandstone, overlying inclined beds of non-fossili- 

 ferous limestone. Between the latter and the Paras-nath 



* A lofty mountain said to be 7000—8000 feet high. 



