PEJROLOGY. 21 



masses. It is white, micro-crystalline, and very soft. It is forming at 

 the present day in some places, and is evidently the joint product of 

 the sulphur-springs and the massive limestone that are plentiful near 

 Naini Tell. There is hardly a sufficient quantity to go far as an arti- 

 ficial fertilizer for the soil, for which purpose it is in some request ; 

 but for making selenitic mortar for building and canal-works (as 

 strongly advocated by Colonel Thomason, R.E.) there is practically 

 an unlimited supply for local uses, obtainable at little cost. 



Wherever the Siwalik conglomerate flattens out into a gentle 

 anticlinal or synclinal, the division between the Recent and Siwalik 

 deposits cannot be made on petrological grounds, especially when 

 the Recent gravels have been cemented and hardened by the deposi- 

 tion of lime. The gravels on the plainward edge of the hills forming 

 the Bhcibar, and the alluvium of the plains, also come under this head- 

 ing ; but they lie outside the pale of this memoir. 



I have met with no deposits of material, angular, or otherwise 



suggestive of the agency of ice. It would 

 No glacial beds. && , 



indeed be strange if glacial conditions had pre- 

 vailed during the Recent period in this part of India. Some angular 

 conglomerates in the Nehdl N. and in the Gola R. near Amratpur, 

 which cling to the hillsides, are no doubt scree-material. They re- 

 semble similar deposits in the Dehra Dun, near Rajpur, which present 

 somewhat the appearance of a boulder bed, but are more probably an 

 accumulation of scree-material : the ridge up to Masuri hill-station, 

 which rises very steeply above these deposits, would constitute a vera 

 causa for the accumulation of such angular debris in that locality. 1 



The Siwalik conglomerate, in the majority of cases, is found to 



Siwalik conglomerate: be sharply marked off from the Recent deposits 



U. Siwalik. ^ a ver y distinct uncorformability, except in 



1 Connected with the glacial question, the presence of very distinct ancient moraines 

 (two lateral and a terminal), a few miles south of the present Kedarn&th glacier, and 

 some hundreds of feet below it, show very clearly the limits within which the glacier 

 has contracted during the Recent period. Major-General McMahon (Rec. G. S. I„ Vol. 

 XII, p. 68) gives similar evidence from observations made by him during a tour through 

 Hangrang and Spiti. 



( 79 ) 



