INTRODUCTION 
xlv 
general basis of the mountains is clay-slate, occasionally very 
micaceous, passing into a coarse sandstone, but here and there 
limestone occurs interstratified. The dip is extremely variable, 
and the rocks, whatever their age, are evidently highly metamor- 
phosed. The tertiary formations, so well illustrated by Falconer 
and Cautley, extend all along the base of the mountains, and 
penetrate in some places far into the valleys, for certain rocks in 
the neighbourhood of Sabathu have been indicated by Major 
Yicary which appear to be of the same age, or perhaps of a still 
older tertiary epoch. 
From Simla, to Fagu, a distance of fourteen miles, the road 
follows throughout the course of the main range, not always on 
the very crest of the ridge, but seldom at any great distance from 
it. After passing round the peak of Jako it turns northward and 
descends abruptly about 500 feet to a low part of the ridge, 
elevated about 6,800 feet, and quite bare of trees. The ridge con- 
tinues in a north-east direction for nearly four miles. On the 
slope of the hill below the road there is a small cluster of trees of 
Cupressus torulosa, a species of cypress, one of the rarer conifers 
of the Himalaya, the most favourite situation of which seems to 
be on very steep mountains in the interior, at elevations of from 
seven to nine thousand feet. It was found abundantly by Major 
Madden on Shali, a [limestone] peak twenty miles east of Simla, 
and it appears to extend thence west as far as Simla, where it 
occurs in several places on hot, dry, and very bare rocky hills as 
low as six thousand feet. 
About four miles from Simla a sudden increase in the eleva- 
tion of the range takes place. The road ascends the steep face of 
the ridge with a deep ravine on either hand, that to the right bare, 
while on the left there is first a thicket of rose and willow bushes, 
and further on an oak-wood of a species, Quercus floribunda \_Q. 
dilatata], different from that common at Simla and indicative of 
greater elevation, though here growing with Bhododendron and 
Andromeda [ Pieris ], common Simla trees. At an elevation of about 
8,000 feet forest commences, and the road runs for a mile through 
fine trees of deodar and spruce, Abies Smithiana [Picea Morinda ], 
generally on the very crest of the ridge, looking down towards the 
east into a deep and broad valley. 
From an elevation of about 8,000 feet the Mahasu ridge rises 
to at least 9,000 feet, and as it is throughout well wooded, the 
road along it is extremely beautiful. On the earlier part of the 
ridge the forest consists chiefly of pine, Pinus excelsa and Abies 
Smithiana being abundant, and more especially the deodar, which, 
on the slope facing the west, may be seen in the greatest profusion, 
