602 The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kamaoon. [June* 



clined strata dipping from S. S. W. to S. S. E., and crossing out on the 

 north face of the mountain in steep precipices facing those of the 

 Khurei limestone across the Recthagar, of which the dip is N. 60° E. 

 The lever at Binsur was apparently an eruption of syenite, which has 

 reached the surface at the gorge of the temple. Eruptive rocks seem 

 in fact to abound all over the province : Major T. E. Sampson detected 

 a great outburst of trap near Chandpoor, south of Kuruprag, on the 

 route from Almorah to Budreenath : at Dhamus, on the declivity of 

 Siyahee Devee, a dyke of greenstone, about one hundred yards across, 

 separates the mica slate from the granite, which there forms the upper 

 part of the mountains. It is rapidly disintegrating, and is arranged 

 in concentric layers of very considerable diameter, each with a hard 

 spherical nucleus : numbers of these lie about, exfoliating more slowly, 

 and forming those natural boulders so abundant and troublesome on 

 the trap plateaus of central India : the operation of fire thus operating 

 as water does in the case of river boulders. Strewed on the surface of 

 this dyke there are many cuboidal masses of an extremely hard and 

 sonorous black hornblende rock, from which the spot is known as 

 Kala-putthur and Tipooria Putthur " The Peeling stones."* 



There is no village at Deo Dhoora, but the Poojaree, an importunate 

 beggar, has a respectable house, about which there is a collection of 

 slated huts, for the convenience of the many pilgrims who assemble to 

 celebrate the annual fair in September. On this occasion it is or was 

 the custom for the people to form into parties which fought with sticks 

 and stones, with a not unfrequently fatal result, and all in honor of 

 the presiding goddess. Such combats answer in society the part of 

 Cowper's " animated No" in conversation ; and in this case were doubt- 

 less the escapes and safety valves of the spirit of litigation for which 

 the people of Kumaoon are noted. It seems to be in truth almost 

 their only serious defect, and no where does one more frequently hear 

 complaints of the meshes of the law : " Jal-sazee." This state of 

 things is an unavoidable result of the law of inheritance, which allows 

 the sons " share and share alike" of the father's property ; so that 



* I observe that Dr. Iloylc confounds Wangtoo Bridge in Kunawur with Whartoo 

 ( Uuttoo) near Simlah : the latter mountain is gneiss ; but at Wangtoo, the Sulluj has 

 cut its way through a mass of the hardest granile. 



Illustrations, p. XXXV. 



