380 Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. [Oct. 



escarpments all but plumb the river, there is still a narrow strip of dead 

 flat alluvium, with kunker, as hard and tough as many rocks, through 

 which the river eats its way, cutting channels with perpendicular sides 

 in both margins, and which shield the rocky hills on either bank. A 

 thin bed of vegetable mould, the result of decomposition, or perhaps 

 aided by occasional overflows of the stream, caps the alluvium ; but the 

 latter is distinctly a formation antecedent to the birth of the river. Of 

 all problems referring more immediately to Indian geology, this appears 

 to me the most interesting ; whether we regard this vast deposit in a 

 purely geological light or as that depression of hills and elevation of 

 valleys, which has smoothed so much of the surface of the continent 

 from the Himalayah to Cape Comorin, producing uniformity of outline 

 and of concomitant features, over many thousands of square leagues, 

 favoring the ravages of conquering races, and the propagation of creeds, 

 of populations and industrial arts. On passing over the mountainous 

 districts one is astonished at the isolation of the tribes, inhabiting the 

 rugged hills of Curruck from Parus Nath and Rajmahal, but a uni- 

 formity prevails amongst the people north of the range, and along the 

 Gangetic plains, from Benares to Monghyr, more marked than between 

 any two neighbouring counties in England. 



To return to the Parus Nath range (or table-land of north Bengal) it 

 is the great water bed of this part of India. Rivers flow from it N. W. 

 and N. into the Soane ; the Rheru, the Kunner, the Coyle and innu- 

 merable smaller streams. A few insignificant nullahs also find their 

 way to the Ganges. The more considerable ones debouche in the 

 Hooghly, as the Dummoodah with its aflluents, the Adji and Barrucker, 

 the Cossye and Dalkissori; and still others, the Subunrika, Brahminy 

 and north feeders of the Mahanuddy flow to the Bay of Bengal. 



Hence, though difficult to define from its gradual slope to the east- 

 ward, its broken outline, (so different from the ghat ranges of sandstone 

 or trap rocks,) and from the impracticable nature of the country 

 forming its southern boundary, it is a range of great interest, from its 

 being the source of so many important rivers, and of all those which 

 drain the country between the Soane, Hooghly and Ganges — from its 

 position directing the course of the Soane and forcing the Ganges which 

 strikes its base at Rajmahal, to seek a sinuous course to the sea. In 

 its climate and botany it differs equally from the Gangetic plains to the 



