COUNTRY BETWEEN KOTDWAR AND MITAWALA SOT. 87 



and the latter at the Kho, we find that the Nahan sandstone and 

 shales, which alone are left constituting the Sub-Himalayan band, 

 present no orographical features which are distinctive of themselves. 

 There are no longer a set of longitudinal ridges rising one behind the 

 other, with duns, or even low country between them. The Nahan 

 sandstone of this tract is merely cut into a set of transverse hill-spurs, 

 which descend towards the plains from the higher mesozoicand Hima- 

 layan ranges of hills, lying further to the north. The main boundary, 

 in fact, is merely marked at the surface by a set of low gaps in these 

 transverse ridges. The Sub-Himalayan zone, therefore, may be said 

 to be welded without break into the older zones above it, so that 

 denudation has cut through the whole as if they were one uniform 

 block of conformable strata. A -simplicity of structure is thereby 

 presented by these Nahans which will not delay us long. 



As a rule, the strata dip uniformly to the north-east, or there- 

 about; and, though very reliable sections are wanting, we shall see 

 that the probability is in favour of the view that the whole is an 

 ascending series from the plains to the main boundary, or very 

 nearly so. 



Up this river, in the Sub-Himalayan zone, there are dips of from 

 ... D /ir . , ts° to 6o° N.E. and E.N.E. The lowest beds 



Kho R. (Kotedwar OD 

 Glen). (47) seen n ear Kotdwar, at the mouth of the glen, 



have a large proportion of purple shales among them of the usual 



nature of the visible base of the Nahan stage. There are also some 



few of the conglomerate bands peculiar to this stage. Throughout 



the rest of the way up to the main boundary there are sandstones 



with occasional shales of the ordinary Nahan type. The following 



peculiarity, however, is to be noted. About two miles from Kotdwar 



the sandstone loses most of its ordinary characteristics, and becomes 



as if about to pass into the softer sand-rock. Thus it is certain that, 



though the two sand-rock bands are not actually present in the 



Kho, having died out as mentioned in the last section, the reversed 



faults to the north of them are still continued with less intensity 



across the Kho section ; for further to the north-east, up the Kho, the 



( 145 ) 



