280 Geological Notes on Zillah Shahabad, or Arrah. [March, 



below the falls the valley is darkened by an immense grove of mango 

 trees, which extends for two miles along the bosom of the valley. Pro- 

 ceeding to the northward the valley deepens rapidly from 700 to 1,000 

 feet, sometimes expanding to a mile in width, sometimes contracting to 

 a few hundred yards ; diverging from this valley are numerous smaller 

 k'hohs, almost impenetrable toman, but all affording excellent shade and 

 pasture to large herds of buffaloes, which help to supply the Mirzapoor 

 and Benares markets with Ghee. After having traversed about eight 

 miles of this valley the Soogeea-k'hoh strikes off west and extends into 

 the mountains for about ten miles ; in this valley are situated the extra- 

 ordinary limestone caves, a surveyed map of which appears as a vig- 

 nette on the accompanying map. 



Sandstone. — This mineral forms the grand mass of the table-land, 

 and I am inclined to think overlies an equally extensive bed of moun- 

 tain limestone. It is to this sandstone that the mountains owe their 

 grand appearance, displaying as it does the most tremendous precipices ; 

 it varies in color in almost every specimen ; it is exceedingly hard, 

 strikes fire with a steel readily, is ponderous and tough, fracture con- 

 choidal ; that it is of a durable nature is proved by the buildings at 

 Sasseram, Rhotas and Shergurh. The sandstone in some of the buildings 

 in the two last named places cannot have been quarried and used for 

 building less than 800 years ago and yet is still as perfect as the rock 

 from whence quarried. It is universally quarried wherever a town or 

 village requiring stone happens to be near the hills. The colors are 

 principally white, red, pink, striped and grey, and is used for all sorts 

 of building purposes, handmills, sugarmills, pestles, mortars, steps, 

 door-posts and a variety of other domestic purposes : to it, the fortres- 

 ses of Rhotas and Shergurh are beholden for all their palaces, and bat- 

 tlements ; Sasseram for the greater part of its city, the tomb of Sher 

 Shah is built of it, as also the bridge over the Kurrumnassa river at 

 Musehee ; on the northern face of the table-land it is of a softer tex- 

 ture ; here it is extensively quarried for a variety of purposes. 



The vast precipices exhibited in this sandstone admirably display the 

 horizontal formation of the mass ; one of the precipices in the fort of 

 Rhotas I found by measurement to be 1,300 feet, a sheer mass of stone 

 without a bush, or tree on its surface ; it is situated close to an over- 

 hanging mass of building known as the Hujj am' s palace, a few minutes' 



