1869.] Geological Notes on the Khasi Hills. 3 



same time, the eye looks over a new land of high flat plateaus, show- 

 ing at once their regular superposition, and notwithstanding the great 

 elevation, their undisturbed state ; even if the lines of bedding that 

 show in the steep cliffs of the ravines were absent, to strengthen the 

 impression. To the south-west rises the steep scarped hill of Maosinghi, 

 an outlier of another long high plateau to the south ; this is to a certain 

 extent evidence of still newer deposits, mostly swept off by the all-power- 

 ful forces of denudation. The boundary of the beds first seen at Pi'rni- 

 sungiit follows this ridge eastward towards MofHang, these beds being at 

 first very thin, from lying and abutting on the denuded southerly slope 

 of the older rocks. The road towards the Bogapani, descends into the 

 valley running towards Langiong, and the whole series is here well 

 displayed, the most striking feature being its exceeding coarseness. 

 Thick, irregularly bedded conglomerates of metamorphic rocks, are 

 very equally associated with the very coarsest grits of quartzitic ma- 

 terial. These are seen (Section A, pi. III. resting, first, on the granitoid 

 rocks, and then on thin-bedded soft micaceous and pink-tinted schists, 

 and in the bed of the stream below, on the dark green, or blue colour- 

 ed trap, the extreme northern limit of a rock of which Mr. Medlicott 

 in his report says : — " I have never seen, not even in Central India, 

 such extensive phenomena of trappean intrusion." 



From the great preponderance of shingle and water -worn stones 

 in the beds around the valley of the Karamjoimai, the cliffs that 

 were formerly cut away and bounded its sides, are now covered up for 

 many yards in extent by a shingly gravelly talus ; the old scarp only 

 showing here and there at intervals. The quartzitic nature of 

 the materials, as before mentioned, gives these slopes a very light 

 colour, and to the country a very peculiar and uncommon appearance, 

 the ground being so stony that hardly any grass grows on it. 



The level of the opposite plateau, bounding the right bank of the 

 Bogapani, is very nearly the same as that on the south of the deep 

 gorge of that river. It is very noticeable, as one proceeds south, that 

 the sandstones become finer, the bedding more regular, and thicker, 

 until at last, the conglomerates are replaced by coarse grits, and the 

 mass of the beds by hard and rather fine sands, some very white ; even 

 beds of a clayey nature are occasionally seen. North of the Boga 

 Pani, I noticed no trace of any carbonaceous shales, which I had 



