1840c] 



On the Sevdlik Hills. 



293 



Ganges, or south-eastern extremity, a road passes between the chain and 

 the river ; and no difficulty whatever is offered to the approach to the 

 valley. At the opposite or Jumna extremity, on the contrary, the moun- 

 tains are in many places scarped into the river; and the footpath used 

 by the boaf and raft people, is an irregular track, over ridge and through ' 

 hollow, and impinges upon the river at those points only where the stream, 

 in its meandering course, strikes the opposite side of the channel. The 

 intermediate roads, or ghats, follow the rivers or hill-streams ; for in 

 such an utter confusion of mountains, any other passage is impossible. 

 A few of these roads are passable for wheeled carriages, but the general- 

 ity are bad footpaths. Between the Jumna and the Sutluj are two other 

 valleys, the Keaida and the Pinjore, separated from each other bv one 

 of those complex masses of mountains v/hich connect the lower with the 

 upper Himalaya range. The hills are generally less precipitous in this 

 neighbourhood; and the liigh'^r points and ridges are separate! by 

 valleys, affording a drainage to the country, and displaying on each side 

 high and beautiful sections of the stratification These valleys, or pla- 

 teaux — for, with reference to the rivers running below them, they may 

 be considered as such— vary in width, but extend along the whole course 

 of the mountain-streams. 



As much confusion m ly be avoided, in the absence of a native name 

 for the whole range of these mountains between the Sutluj and the Bur- 

 hampootur, by establishing one, which may be considered legitimate, t 

 wish to propose that of Sevalik,* for:jerly applied to the portion be- 



• In Smitli's Exotic Botany, vol. i. p. 9., is the description of the Rhododendron arho- 

 reum: he refers it "to the mountainous tract calltd the Sevvalic chain, whicli separates 

 the plains of Hindostan, between 75" ami 85' E. long, from the Himalaya mountains. I 

 make the quotation for the value of the name, thout,'h the statement is evidently wrong ; 

 the rhododendron in question growing in the Himalayas themselves at a high elevation, 

 and in company with oaks. The chain separating the plains of Hindostan from the Hi- 

 malayas, which is the one now under review, is subject to a mean temperature perfectly 

 inimical to oaks and the Rhododendron arboreum. The name is quoted also in Dow's 

 History, and in some traditional writings in the possession of the high priest or Mahant 

 residing at Deyra. The derivation supplied by the high priest is as follows 



Sewalik, a corruption of Shibwalla, a name given to the tract of mountains between 

 the Jumna and the Ganges, from having been the residence of Aysho jr Shib, a name of 

 Mahadeo and his son Gun, who, under th e form of an elephant, had charge of the wes- 

 terly portion, from the village of Doodhli to the Jumna ; which portion is also called 

 Guno-ujur {gujur, elephant) : the portion eastward from Doodhli, or between that vil- 

 lage and Hurdwar, is called Deodhar, from its being the especial residence of Deota, or 

 Ayshoor Shib. The whole tract, however, between the Jumna and the Ganges, is call- 

 ed Shibwalla, or the habitation of Shib." 



