DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY : SLATE ZONE. 89 



is more marked than in any of the others) has a counterpart in the 

 great diversity of surface feature, a few remarks about which wili 

 now be made. 



Certain parts of the zone which have been cut down by denuda- 

 tion as far as the slates are occupied by recent accumulations of 

 gravels, forming plains. The Abbottabad plain,- the plain of the 

 Dore river between Dhumtour and Turbela, and the plain of the 

 Hurroh river in part are such ; and these open cultivated areas leading 

 from elevations of about 1,000 feet to 4,000 feet above the sea, form 

 a natural highway from the lower levels, coinciding with the Rawal- 

 pindi plateau up into the heart of the district. 



If we enter Hazara by leaving the railway at Hassan Abdal and 

 taking the tonga 1 to Hureepoor we shall find ourselves in a great plain 

 in the centre of the Slate zone. Standing on a turret of the old fort 

 of Huree Singh at Hureepoor, our view all round is almost confined 

 to a part of this zone. To the south-west in close proximity lies the 

 native town, its busy thoroughfares and lines of mud-built flat-roofed 

 shops contrasting with the quiet gardens of mango, loquortz, plantain, 

 etc., which cluster round the town ; and which fed with runnels of 

 water from the canals offer cool retreats in the hot weather when 

 round about outside the vertical sun beats continuously down on the 

 blinding dusty roads. Beyond the town and beyond the gardens 

 stretches the fertile plain of the Dore river and some affluents of the 

 Hurroh river, bright green in spring when the wheat crop covers the 

 land and yellow in autumn with the tall Indian-corn. This is a rich 

 tract of alluvium, intersected by a complicated, if primitive, irrigation 

 system from the Dore river, without which the plain would be nothing 

 better than a sandy waste. The valley of the Dore, which may 

 be seen stretching away to the east, is almost entirely restricted to the 

 Slate zone. The river-bed itself, like that of most Himalayan rivers, 

 is a wilderness of white boulders, half a mile wide, and from 100 to 

 300 ft. below the general level of the alluvial plain, which is cut off 

 from the river-bed by sheer cliffs of gravel and sand. The stream 



I Tonga =» mail-cart. 



( 89 ) 



