1840.] Geological Features of the Himalayan Mountains. 325 



was rnet with. At Saharimpore, in digging a well, after ten feet, coarse 

 moist sand was found, mixed with round pebbles, chiefly of quartz, and 

 about twenty feet from the surface, pieces of kunkur or tufaceons 

 limestone, were raised, together w^ith dicotyledonous wood, ap- 

 parently of one of the Coniferae. At Bihut, twenty miles north of 

 Saharunporc, Capt. Cautley discovered the site of an ancient town 

 seventeen feet below the present surface of the country. The Indo* 

 Scytliic Coins which had been entombed in this oriental Hercu- 

 laneum, Mr. Prinsep refers to the commencement of the Christian era. 

 Capt. Cautley is of opinion that the enormous discharge of sand, clay, 

 and fthingle from the lower hills during the periods of the rainy season, 

 are gradually causing a rise of the country skirting their base, and to 

 this and the action of wind on sand, he ascribes the inhumation of this 

 ancient city. The structure of the plains may also be seen in the raised 

 hills which skirt the base of the Himalayas, and the banks of the 

 Jumna afford a verj interesting series of sections, of which the struc- 

 ture may be treated of either with that of the Gangetic valley or of 

 Central India, as some of the peculiar formations of the latter seem to 

 extend even to the beds of that river. 



Proceeding from the plains of India to ascend the Himalayas, we 

 everywhere meet with a lower range of hills, which have been vari- 

 ously denominated *' the Lower Hills, the Sandstone, Sub-Himalayan 

 or Sewalic Hills." These hills, in many parts, rest immediately upon 

 the Himalaj^as, bat in others are separated from them by a series of 

 longitudinal valleys. The part with which the Author is best acquaint- 

 ed is the direct road from Saharunpore to Deyra and the Himalayas, 

 through the Kheree pass, which is the broad, generally flat, stony bed 

 of a hill stream, ascending by degrees to the crest of the pass, now 

 much cut down, but from which there is a gradual descent to the valley 

 or Doon of Deyra. Along this pass flows in a winding course a small 

 stream of very clear water. On either side, and about fifty yards apart, 

 arise the hills, and, according to the windings of the stream, are seen 

 sometimes sloping, sometimes abrupt ; in the former case, covered with 

 vegetation, in the latter, presenting a barren and precipitous display of 

 their stratified structure. These strata dip to the N.E. or towards the 

 Himalayas, at various angles from 20" to 38°, and the hills display 

 every variety of appearance, partly from the destroying effects of water 

 on so destructible a material, and partly to this being sometimes defend- 

 ed from its influence by a covering of a boulder stone. They are formed 

 by a succession of parallel ridges, abrupt towards the plains, and 

 sloping towards the Himalayas. In many places, each hill, if separa- 



