PART 3.] 
Thmhald: The Kimann Lakes. 
169 
stream flowing towards us, we at last reach Naukatchia Tah i'acing still to the 
south-east, we have on our left the lofty range separating the valley from Malwa 
Tal and on our right the low range on which Dhansila and Sirori are built. In 
front of us is Naukatchia Tal, and beyond Naukatchia Tal the valley comes to an 
abrupt end, and a very remarkable one. 
As in the case of Bhim Tal, so in the present instance the original and 
natural course for the surplus waters of Naukatchia Tal would seem to be to the 
south straight into the Gola river, a distance of but a little over 6 miles, instead 
of which they reach the Gola by a circuitous coui’.se of 16 miles, the first 4 
of which seem a reversal, as far as direction goes, of the original drainage of the. 
valley. The main obstruction, looking across the lake in a south-east direction, 
is a low hill, somewhat centrically situated, and which is evidently composed of 
rock in situ. On the left this hill is united with the Mahragaon range by slop¬ 
ing ground, much masked by detritus from the heights above, along which the 
road from Bhim Tal to Malwa Tal is carried. Here, too, I think, there is little 
doubt that the valley is closed to a higher level than the lake, by rock in situ,. 
On the right hand side, however, of the central hill, such does not appear to 
be the case, and on this side would seem to be the oi’iginal and natural outlet 
of the lake, or of the valley prior to the conversion of paid of it into a lake. 
The only obstacle here interposed between the waters of the lake and a precipitous 
valley leading straight down into the Gola river, is what I may designate as a 
causeway, wherein I could detect no rock in situ, and which resoqablcs nothing 
more than a railway embankment connecting the central hill with the opposite or 
south-west side of the valley. This bank which might be (not that I wish to infer 
that it is of artificial origin) is not 50 feet broad at tlie top and forms the watershed 
between Naukatchia Tal at its immediate foot on ono side and a sheer descent 
into the Gola river on the other; it has no appearance of a ‘landslip’ and 
any slip from the central hill would take place rather to the south-east which 
is its precipitous side than to the south-we.st where this bank connects it with the 
high ground opposite. The waters of the lake actually rest against this bank, 
without any intermediate catchment area in that quai'ter, and yet the lake is a 
deep one. If, then, this bank is not] a ‘ landslip, ’ there seems no resource left 
but to regard it as a moraine, which crossed the valley at right angles from 
the heights behind Mahragaon, thereby creating the lake by obstructing the 
drainage. Every collateral consideration favours this view. In the first place, 
we must remember that there is every reason to suppose (as remarked by Mr. 
Ball) that the original course of the stream (and in my view, of the glacier 
subsequently) through Bhim Tal was out and through its extreme southern end. 
Then the ground between Bhim Tal and Naukatchia TM is so open and level as to 
suggest the possibility of its having been once continuously covered by a lake 
embracing in its limits both the existing lakes, and that the spot below Dhansila, 
where the escape waters from both lakes meet, was originally a low water-parting 
between them. On the supposition that the lakes were once united, this reversal 
of conditions is easily understood. The lakes being both simultaneously and 
similarly blocked at their natural outlet to the south, continued to rise and 
B 
