100 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[VOL. Tin, 
frequent occurrence. I noticed them at the lowest levels exposed in the gullies close above 
the Katwaldar gorge, and near the surface of the uplands north of Katmandu, and not 
confined to the edges of the valley. Thin layers of the same kind occur in Kashmir; but in 
Nepal they are thick, and pure enough to be much used for burning bricks. Such deposits 
are only compatible with swamping, such as is an ordinary concomitant of alluvial con¬ 
ditions. There is another deposit of extensive occurrence in Nepal, and of which I find no 
mention elsewhere. It is a fine stiff blue-gray clay, which is very extensively used all over 
1 he valley as a manure. Although it commonly contains particles of carbonized vegetable 
fibre, the little organic matter in it can hardly account for its fertilizing properties. This 
would seem to be due to the presence of phosphate : I noticed that blue specks of vivianite 
are freely scattered through the clay. 
It will hardly be believed that I obtained no fossils from such deposits as these. I 
never was near a section without having a look out for shells, and I examined several spots 
carefully, without any success. This may be another argument for the alluvial mode of 
formation of the deposits, for certainly this process is not propitious to the preservation 
of organic remains. In extenuation of my failure I would mention that one of our best 
known Indian naturalists (Brian Hodgson) was for many years Eesident of Nepal; he cer¬ 
tainly would have at least noticed and recorded the fact had he observed any in the sections 
that confront one in every direction. The case is the more remarkable, since Major Godwin- 
Austen (in 1864) describes land and fresh-water shells as abundant in the Kashmir deposits. 
So at least it is in the south-east side of the valley ; but in his first paper on the subject (in 
1858), derived from observations on the north-west side, he remarks—“ in all my wanderings 
amongst the Karewah Hills I never was able to find the slightest trace of a land or fresh-water 
shell in any of the many sections I have examined.” I would urge the matter upon the 
attention of future dwellers in Nepal. The remains of mammalia or of plants would be 
specially interesting; and both might be expected to turn up occasionally in such beds as the 
peat and the phosphatic clay. 
There is no temptation to attribute the rock-basins of the Nepal valley to glaciers. 
Even if it were proven that glaciers had extended to a much lower level, the form and 
conditions here are not such as would result from or account for the existing features 
through that agency. The valley is not in the course of any main drainage line; on the 
contrary, the watershed is closely restricted to the hills immediately surrounding, none of 
which are of great elevation. The valley is only a local exaggeration of what has occurred 
generally along this mountain zone. I have said that along the strike in both directions 
special denudation has taken place, which I have attempted to account for by the nature 
of the rocks; and in both directions we find the valleys more or less filled with deposits 
exactly like those of Nepal. The phenomenon is longitudinal with respect to the mountain 
system; and can be rationally understood as the effect of compression. The local yielding 
might be induced by the special excavation along this zone; and the effect would be a 
relative elevation of the ridges on the down side, producing rock-basins. It is an illustra¬ 
tion of a process I appealed to last year in explanation of the cretaceous rock-basins in the 
Garo Hills (Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., vol. VII, p. 62), 
Although rejecting the intervention of glaciers in connection with the Nepal valley, I 
have been much puzzled with what I took to be glacial evidence elsewhere. Etoundah 
stands in the Dun exactly facing the gorge of the Rapti. The ground all about is strewn 
with great boulders, up to 10 feet cube, principally of coarse gneiss, high and dry above the 
present bed of the river, in which no such blocks are now to be seen. I came to the opinion 
that thev must be glacial erratics ; although the elevation of the locality is probably well under 
