326 SIKKIM HIMALAYA. Chap. XIV." 



I have generally remarked in Sikkim that the channels of 

 the rivers when cutting through or flowing at the base of 

 bluff cliffs, are neither parallel to nor at right angles to 

 the strike of the rocks forming the cliffs. I do not hence 

 conclude that there is no original connection between the 

 directions of the rivers, and the lines of fracture ; but 

 whatever may have once subsisted between the direction 

 of the fissures and that of the strike, it is in the Sikkim 

 Himalaya now wholly masked by shiftings, which accom- 

 panied subequent elevations and depressions. 



Mr. Hopkins has mathematically demonstrated that the 

 continued exertion of a force in raising superimposed 

 strata would tend to produce two classes of fractures in 

 those strata ; those of the first order at right angles to the 

 direction of the wave or ridge (or line of strike) ; those of 

 the second order parallel to the strike. Supposing the force 

 to be withdrawn after the formation of the two fractures, the 

 resnlt would be a ridge, or mountain chain, with diverging 

 fissures from the summit, crossed by concentric fissures ; 

 and the courses which the rivers would take in flowing 

 clown the ridge, would successively be at right angles and 

 parallel to the strike of the strata. Now, in the Himalaya, 

 a prevalent strike to the north-west has been recognised in 

 all parts of the chain, but it is everywhere interfered with 

 by mountains presenting every other direction of strike, 

 and by their dip never remaining constant either in amount 

 or direction. Consequently, as might be expected, the 

 directions of the river channels bear no apparent relation 

 to the general strike of the rocks. 



We crossed the Raton g (twenty yards broad) by a 

 cane bridge, suspended between two 'rocks of green 

 chlorite, full of veins of granite. Ascending, we passed 

 the village of Kameti on a spur, on the face of which 



