1848.] Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. 379 



remarkably, Parus Nath, around whose base the overlying gneiss rocks 

 dip, radiating from it. The N. E. Vindhya again are of flat beds of 

 sandstone, presenting a dead level, with no eminences or signs of 

 upheaval, overlying a non-fossiliferous inclined bed of limestone. 

 Between the latter and the Parus Nath gneiss, come (in order of super 

 position) shivered and undulating strata of metamorphic quartz, horn- 

 stone, hornstone-porphyry, jaspers, &c. These are thrown up, by 

 volcanic action, along the N. and N. W. boundary of the gneiss range 

 and are to be recognized, at the rocks of Colgong, of Sultangunge and 

 of Monghyr, on the Ganges, as also various detached hills near Gya, 

 and along the upper course of the Soane. From these the Soane 

 pebbles are derived, which are equally common on the Curruckpore 

 range, as on the south banks of the Soane : — so much so in the former 

 position, as to have been used in the decoration of the walls of what 

 are now ruined palaces near Bhaugulpore. 



A very gradual ascent, over the alluvial plains of the west bank of the 

 Hooghly, then over laterite, succeeded by sandstone of the Indian coal 

 era, leads to the granite table-land properly so called ; a little beyond 

 this the latter reaches an average height of 1130 ft. which is continued 

 on upwards of 100 miles, to the Dunwah Pass, in short. Here the 

 descent is sudden, to the plains, which, continuous with those of the 

 Ganges, run up the Soane till its valley is narrowed beyond Rotasghur. 

 Except for the occasional ridges of metamorphic rocks mentioned above, 

 and some intruded hills of greenstone, the lower plain is stoneless, its 

 subjacent rocks being covered with a thicker stratum of the same 

 alluvium, which is thinly spread over the higher parts of the table-land 

 above, though even there collected in beds of enormous thickness in 

 the depressions. The plain here dividing the Kymaon range from that 

 of Parus Nath, is full 80 miles across, with a mere elevation of 400 ft. ; 

 beyond which the ascent to the Kymaon is more abrupt than 400 in 

 the descent at Dunwah. This alluvium is, to my as yet unpractised eyes, 

 a most remarkable formation, and with its inclosed kunker, appears as 

 if deposited quietly and synchronously over the Kymaon, the Parus 

 Nath range and the intervening broad valley of the Soane. Broad 

 bold and headstrong as the latter river is, it seems to have played no 

 part in the formation of its own valley, for in its upper bed, where the 

 valley is scarcely two miles wide, and where the Kymaon sandstone 



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