1840.] 



On ihe Sevdlic Hills. 



803 



In some stratum of this alluvium, perhaps, yet to be discovered, as the 

 streams have no connexion with fhe higher mountains, A description 

 of the w^ashers , and the method practised by them eastward of the Gan- 

 ges, have been given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society ; and as there 

 is little difference in the apparatus used at both places, it is not neces- 

 sary to refer to it further. 



Some of the fossils obtained by Mr. Colebrooke in the hills near Cooch 

 Behar, and described by Mr. Pentland*, are identical with some of those 

 obtained by the present discovery ; and as the former were found in the 

 most eastern extremity of this line, it is possible that a careful examina- 

 tion would prove the existence of animal remains throughout the whole 

 of the intermediate mountains ; all the tract being probably tertiary. 

 An inquiry into the difference between the hills bounded by the Ganges 

 and Jumna, and those westward of the latter ; and into the confused 

 and interminable dislocations, without any flats in the former, and the 

 more scattered ridges with the intermediate plateaux of the latter, would 

 only lead to a disquisition on the general formation of the dhoons or val- 

 ley s lying between the Sevalik hills and the great chain, which the li- 

 mits of this communication will not admit, and must be left for future 

 inquiry. It will be sufficient to state, that the general form of the moun- 

 tains approaches more or less to a right angle, the long slope being co- 

 vered with vegetation, and the crest terminating in a perpendicular and 

 generally mural cliff, which descends into the beds of the torrents. The 

 scenery from these cliffs is most picturesque, and many of the passes or 

 ghats up the torrents are bounded by gigantic walls of sandstone, vary- 

 ing both in height and character, and subject to all the tortuosities de- 

 pendent on a river's course, forcing its channel through a complication 

 of mountains. This effect is considerably heightened by the pointed 

 and jagged style of the outline, depending on that abundance of clay 

 and carbonate of lime throughout the whole formation, which permits 

 even the shingle-beds to hold up their pointed summits in the wildest 

 manner imaginable. At places, a perfectly inaccessible needle of shingle 

 raises its head far above the others, and is crowned by one solitary fir 

 tree, Pinus longifolia. This conical form, produced in the clays by 

 weathering, is sometimes magnificently displayed, by the whole face of a 

 cliff, consisting of light pink, yellow, and blue clays, being externally de- 

 corated with small conical spires of the clay from top to bottom, a height 

 of 1000 feet from the bed of the river. The origin of this structure is 

 due simply to a little coping stone, of some harder material than the 



* Geological Transactions, Second ISeries, vol. iii. p. 393 ; Plate XLV, 



