PART 1.] 
Medlicott: Geology of North-11 csl Provinces. 
11 
Continued observations on the silt in the water, uniformly conducted at distant places, as at 
Fatehgarh, Kanhpur, and Allahabad, might indicate whether erosion or deposition is taking 
place within the Kkadar region. But the most satisfactory test would be, continued registra¬ 
tion of the rise and fall of the water on permanently fixed gauges, to be checked by an 
annual exact measurement of the low-water river-section at each gauge. 
Bhdbar and Tarai land .—Independently of such tracts on the eastern borders of the 
province as come within the sub-doltaic region of the great rivers, there is a considerable 
stretch of country whore the drainage is formative. Tho minor streams from the outer skirts 
of the mountains do not run on into the plains in deep channels cut through deposits of 
earlier times; they flow, at least for many miles, in broad shallow and ever-shifting beds 
formed of materials brought down by themselves. The load of shingle, gravel, sand, and earth 
washed into these torrents by the heavy rainfall from the precipitous slopes of tho Sivalilc 
hills, formed of soft conglomerates, sandstones, and clays, is far moro than tho current can 
carry into the main rivers. It is possible, too, as has just been discussed, that something of 
the same kind takes place in the upper reaches of these rivers themselves. There is thus, 
along the northern margin of the plains, a broad belt of ground the formation of which 
is strictly‘recent.’ The portion of it next the hills, having a steeper slope than the rest, 
is chiefly composed of shingle and gravel with a filling in of sand and earth. This is the 
forest-bearing zone known as the bhdbar. Except in the rainy season, it is devoid of water; 
streams of considerable volume soon sinking into the porous ground, to reappear (at least in 
part) along the lower fringe of the coarse deposits. This second zone, though having, on 
the whole, a considerable slope, greater than the general slope of the plains, is thus made 
watery and swampy; it is well known as the tarai. West of the Ganges this formaiivo 
process is specially active owing to the greater development here of the soft Upper Sivalik 
rocks, which are the most abundant source of detritus. Some years ago, excavations in 
connection with the Eastern Jamna Canal brought to light the ruins of an ancient town. 
The tarai in the Ja.mna-Ganges Doab is scarcely a noticeable feature, owing probably 
to the good natural drainage; tho watershed being here 400 feet abovo the Ganges at 
Hardwar. Eastwards from the Ganges the tarai becomes more and more distinct.. In 
the same direction remnants of an ancient hhdbar deposit become frequent and of increasing 
elevation, till in tho far east, at the base of the Sikim Himalaya, they stand at 1,000 feet 
over the actual torrents. To the south of tho plains some analogous cases of recent 
deposits may be found, but they are altogether insignificant; the larger rivers there also run¬ 
ning in channels which they do not overflow to any extent. 
The phenomena under notico have been only incidentally examined, so that tho sketch 
here given is very incomplete and open to correction. 
Age of the. bhdngar laud. —It. having been shown that the great mass of the plains, 
deposits belongs to a bj'goue period of formation, it devolves upon the geologist to ascertain 
the age and nature of the process. Yery little progress has as yet been made to that end ; 
the systematic study of the question not having been taken up. Some have maintained 
that the deposits are marine or estuarine; others, as seems most likely, that they are, at 
least to any observed depth, purely fluviatilo, by a process like what is now going on 
in the Bengal Provinces. No trace of marine organisms has been found in them. But 
some bones of terrestrial mammalia were got in a hard hod of calcareous gravel in the bed 
of the Jamna nearEtawa; and which seem to belong to species or varieties now extinct ; 
so that those deposits will probably take rank among the later Terliaries. From observations 
made in sinking wells along tho line of railway, one of the engineers has stated the general sec¬ 
tion of the Ganges,Jamna Doab south of Aligarh to be—loam 35 feet, blue silt 30 feet, strong 
lay 20 feet, resting on a water-bed of reddish sand, from which the water rises.some 30 feet. 
