80 M1DDLEMISS: PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF SUB-HIMALAYA. 



on the other. The Kho will be seen to mark a very great change in 

 the geology of the Sub-Himalayan zone, inasmuch as everything 

 younger than the Nahans will be found to cease there. The sand- 

 rock and conglomerate bands we shall find gradually dying out, as the 

 Sub-Himalaya narrow in that direction, by a somewhat abrupt north- 

 ern bending of the plainward edge of the hills. The Chokamb and 

 Kotri duns, as they are called, do not by any means make up 

 the whole of the country included within these boundaries : nor are 

 they, in the strictest sense of the word, duns at all; for there are no- 

 flat valley plateaux of any extent, moulded by Recent or sub-Recent 

 rivers. They more nearly resemble much of the country to the west 

 of Rimnagar, that is to say, their condition is that of an undulating 

 diversity of small hillocks of rapidly weathering sand-rock material, 

 whose summits all lie much about one level. They have thus a general 

 resemblance to duns, especially when they are considered in conjunc- 

 tion with the higher Nahan ridges, which shut them in on their north 

 and south sides. They need, however, the Siwalik conglomerate as a 

 superficial layer, dipping at low angles, or horizontal, to give them 

 that plain-like unity of surface which is so characteristic of the Dehra, 

 Patli, and Kotah duns. The low country through which the Pelini 

 runs near its junction with the Mandalti R., and the similar tract 

 through which the Sona N. winds, might, with equal propriety, be 

 called duns, for they present very much the same appearance, and 

 only require a more complete encircling of the higher ridges to give 

 them as doubtful a title. 



With regard to the general features of the country and its flora, 

 nothing need be said that has not already been remarked about the 

 similar country to the west of Ramnagar. Everywhere dense jungle 

 prevails, rising and falling in billowy irregular forms, which mount into 

 steeper crested ridges in those places where the harder Nahan sand- 

 stone bands are present. A few temporary village communities of gold- 

 washers thrive on the banks of the Sona N. during the rainy season 

 when the streams are in flood, and the glittering micaceous alluvial mud 

 and sand spread in thick deposits with a modicum of the precious metaU 



( 138 ) 



