THE JUMNA AND NERBUDDAH. 25 
Cannpore to Calcutta, and indeed from Hurdwar intra 
Gangeniy is a light-coloured mould, consisting of a due 
proportion of argillaceous, siliceous, and calcareous earths, 
the last being most abundant above Marghyr. Its chief 
characteristic is derived from the quantity of mica which it 
contains, in minute grains and scales. This also prevails in 
the district which I passed through, from Allahabad to 
Chilly terrah Ghaut, on the Jumna. About half a mile to 
the north of this river, we descend a bank, which appears 
to form its boundary in the rainy season, and enter upon a 
low flat, where, in place of a fair, shining, attenuated mould, 
the eye meets nothing but an uniformly dull, coarse, black 
earth, not unlike the half-digested soils of muirlands at 
home. This dark soil is still more striking on the Bundle- 
cund side, and continues almost the whole way to Besse- 
ramgunge. It seems to contain a larger proportion of argil- 
laceous earth, and vegetable recrement, than the land on 
the left bank of the Jumna, and that which is generally ob- 
served in the upper provinces of India. 
The Jumna, where the passage is made, is a smooth 
gently-flowing stream. The banks show no rock, but are 
high and perpendicular ; and, when viewed from the oppo- 
site side, along with the advancing stream, the Cane, which 
here joins its waters to the Jumna, look uncommonly 
well, and are devoid of the dulness which characterises the 
whole course of the united rivers the Ganges and J umna, 
below Allahabad. 
On approaching the town of Banda, distant two marches, 
or about twenty miles from the river, several small hills arc 
seen in the west, like erections for flagstalfs, posted at regu- 
Jar intervals. They appear to run in one line, from N W, 
to SE., and are of a conical, or rather pyramidal, figure. 
One of them rises from the plain close to Banda ; it is about 
three or four hundred feet high, and is divided, at the up= 
