April, 1848. HOT SPRINGS. 89 



bases. The river has its course through the alluvium, like 

 the Soane. The depth of the former is in many places 

 upwards of 100 feet, and the kunker pebbles it contains 

 are often disposed in parallel undulating bands. It 

 nowhere contains sand pebbles or fossils; concretions of 

 lime (kunker) alone interrupting its uniform consistence. 

 It attains its greatest thickness in the valleys of the Ganges 

 and the Soane, gradually sloping up to the Himalaya and 

 Curruckpore hills on either flank. It is, however, well 

 developed on the Kymore and Paras-nath hills, 1200 to 

 1500 feet above the Ganges valley, and I have no doubt 

 was deposited in very deep water, when the relative 

 positions of these mountains to the Ganges and Soane 

 valleys were the same that they are now. Like every 

 other part of the surface of India, it has suffered much 

 from denudation, especially on the above-named mountains, 

 and around their bases, where various rocks protrude 

 through it. Along the Ganges again, its surface is an 

 unbroken level between Chunar and the rocks of 

 Monghyr. The origin of its component mineral matter 

 must be sought in the denudation of the Himalayas within 

 a very recent geological period. The contrast between the 

 fertility of the alluvium and the sterility of the protruded 

 quartzy rocks is very striking, cultivation running up to 

 these fields of stones, and suddenly stopping. 



Unlike the Soorujkoond hot-springs, those of Seeta- 

 koond rise in a plain, and were once covered by a 

 handsome temple. All the water is collected in a tank, 

 some yards square, with steps leading down to it. The 

 water, which is clear and tasteless (temp. 104°), is so 

 pure as to be exported copiously, and the Monghyr 

 manufactory of soda-water presents the anomaly of owing 

 its purity to Seeta's ablutions. 



