YI* Notes , accompanying a set of Specimens from the Himalay 
Mountains . 
* By JAMES FRASER, Esq. 
OF CALCUTTA. 
Communicated by Capt. BASIL HALL, r.n, 
[Read 20th February, 4818.] 
A FEW facts and general remarks regarding the nature and ap- 
pearance of the country, where the specimens of rock accompanying 
this communication were gathered, may assist in conveying some 
•faint idea of its geological structure, which the meager quantity and 
style of the specimens, and the utter ignorance of J:heir collector, are 
little calculated to effect. 
It is well known that the Plains of Hindostan through which the 
Ganges and its subsidiary streams hold their course, are bounded on 
the north-east by a mountainous tract, which runs the whole way 
from the banks of the Burrawpooter to the Attock, or chief branch 
of the Indus, and, crossing that river, spreads out into a less 
circumscribed and less lofty highland country, the chains of which 
are connected with many of the chief ridges of Asia, although from 
our limited knowledge of the geography of those remote districts, 
their connexion is little understood. Indeed until the late war with 
Nepal rendered it important to collect information in these quarters, 
this great range of mountainous country, and the people it is inhabited 
by, were almost totally unknown to us. 
