1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon, 385 



out, and is seen to dribble down the cliffs in tiny rills. On receding 

 ten to fifteen miles from the mountains, these beds of clay come to the 

 surface, bringing up with them the accumulated waters of the great 

 gravel talus above, and thus forming the swamps and morasses, which are 

 so deadly in autumn to all but the Boksars and Tharoos, two tribes who 

 pretend that they pine and die if removed from their native malaria. 



The thickness of the gravel deposit all along the base of the moun- 

 tains is enormous : half way between Tanda and Bumouree it was 

 pierced to the depth of 150 feet, without reaching the bottom ; the con- 

 sequence is that the forest tract, immediately beyond the base of the 

 mountains, has no water but such as is supplied by Kools, or artificial 

 cuts from the streams before they are absorbed ; at Dehra, Captain 

 Herbert informs us that the gravel bed is 220 feet thick. We may 

 suppose that while this tract still formed the bed of the ocean, the 

 great rivers brought down the materials, which the currents distributed 

 along the shores, just as the silt of the Nile, which the direction of the 

 river would carry north, is, by the ocean-current, deposited far to the 

 East towards Pelusium. That this process has, however, been partial, 

 appears from two facts ; 1. The gravel extends farther along the line of 

 the rivers than elsewhere : 2. Its composition is said to exhibit a gene- 

 ral conformity with the rock peculiar to the mountains in the rear. 

 One point is certain : everywhere along the crest of the Sewalik range, 

 we find the same water-worn pebbles as at its base : imbedded in sand 

 in a position which, from their flatness, they could not have assumed 

 naturally. The chain was, therefore, elevated after the deposition of 

 the gravel, and on the same plan as the great ranges behind it, i. e. 

 with its steep walls and cliffs facing S. W. and forming to the N. E. 

 gently inclined planes, by the dip of the strata in that direction ; a phe- 

 nomenon equally true of the Himalaya viewed as a whole ; the slope on 

 the Tibetan side contrasted with the abrupt front presented to India, 

 being a conspicuous feature in the narrative of every traveller who has 

 passed the snowy crest : it may be compared to a sea, with the billows 

 all breaking towards the S. W. Partial exceptions may be observed ; 

 abreast of the Bahmunee Danda, the low, exterior range rises in steep 

 cliffs to the N. E. at Nynee Devee on the Sutluj, the temple occupies 

 a pivot in the second range, on one side of which the strata dip toward 

 the Plains ; on the other, toward the snows. 



