Roeonls of the (Ji'ologictil Surveg of India. 
fVOI- XFII. 
‘Z.'iU 
Leaving now the Potwar, and crossing tlie Cliitapaliar range, we descend 
into the valley of the Hurroh (which joins the Indus at the rectangular bend 
that river makes to the west), at Nilat, where the old royal road from Peshawar 
to Hindustan used to cross, and both the Haripur and Chuch plains offer some 
points of great interest in connection with their recent deposits and the physical 
changes of surface they reveal. 
The Haripur plain is bounded on all sides except to the south-west by 
hills, and is composed of a deep alluvial deposit, the older rocks not usually 
appearing’, away from the hills which bound the valley. South of the old can¬ 
tonments of Haripur, the whole of the drainage of the valley is conveyed into 
the Hurroh river; whilst that to the north finds its way into the Dorh, which, 
after being joined by the Siran, flows into the Indus above Torbela, past the 
northern extremity of Gandgarh moitntain, which is interposed between that 
river and the Haripur plain. Ho erratics occur in any part of the Haripur 
plain, and the valley of the Hurroh is wholly free from them till within a mile 
or less of the spot where the Peshawar trunk road crosses the stream. Down to 
this point the valley may be said to be sheltered by the mass of Gandgarh; but 
directly the lower ridges south of Gandgarh are passed (going west), ‘ erratics ’ 
of Hazara gneiss, or the Indus ‘ erratics, ’ as they may be called, appear in some 
force, and from the spot Avhere the road crosses continue down tin} valletj of Hurroh 
as far as its junction with the Indus at Barotha. These ‘erratics,’ as I have stated, 
have not descended the Hurroh valley, but have cut abruptly into it from the 
Indus, beloAv the sheltering barrier of Gandgarh, or, in other words, the former 
course of the Indus coincided with the present course of the Hurroh, west and 
south of that mountain. This will be rendered clear by a glance at the accom¬ 
panying sketch map, Avhereon is marked the course of these Indus ‘ erratics ’ and 
their distribution in this neighbourhood ; and it will be at once apparent that at 
no remote period the Kabul riA^er joined the Indus—not, as now, at Attock, but 
close to Barotha, some 9 miles to the south. The Avhole of the country botAveen 
the trunk road on the north and the Hurroh on the south, consists of rolling 
‘ downs ’ of river alluvium, mostly sandy, Avith here and there a sprinkling of Indus 
gravel and boulders, and scattered ‘ erratics ’—those last being specially numerous 
along the course of the Hurroh, as the annexed map Avill show.' Many of these 
en'atics are of large size, 50 feet in girth or more, though of cotu’se the majority 
are smaller. They consist of Hazara gneiss or of limestone, which last rock has 
not travelled so far as the other. The sketches hero given (see Plate) of one 
near Dakner and of another near Jand, by Mr. Wynne, will give a good idea of 
the general appearance of these blocks—those of limestone or of any crystalline 
schist being, fi-om the nature of the rock, usually more jagged and angular than 
those of gneiss, which is so Avont to ‘ flake off ’ at the sni’face. 
Ho one, I think, who considers that the aboA’c ‘ ci’ratics ’ (granite) have 
travelled from the most distant parts of Hazara, and are now seen reposing on a 
sandy plain, Avill entertain serious doubts as to their truly ‘ erratic ’ charactei', or 
that they huA'e been conveyed by ice flotation to the positions they noAV occupy. 
^ See also Wynne’s map, Recortls X, Part 3. 
