fuel for iron smelting in days gone by. The Government, however, has
taken steps to protect the remaining forests from further spoliation. A
remarkable feature is the presence of numerous sacred groves situated
generally just below the brows of the hills. In these woods are to
be found principally oak and rhododendron trees. The fir-tree (Pinus
Khasia) is first met with on the road from Gauhati to Shillong, at
Umsning, at an elevation of about 2,500 feet. In the neighbourhood
of Shillong the fir grows profusely, but the finest fir-trees are
to be seen in the Jowai sub-division. In the vicinity of Nongpoh is
observed the beautiful _nahor_ or _nageswar_, the iron-wood tree. The
latter is also to be found on the southern slopes of the hills in
the Jowai sub-division. There are some _sal_ forests to the west and
south of Nongpoh, where the _sal_ trees are almost as large as those
to be found in the Garo Hills. Between Shillong and Jowai there are
forests of oak, the country being beautifully wooded. Chestnuts and
birches are also fairly common. The low hills on the northern and
western sides of the district are clad with dense forests of bamboo,
of which there are many varieties. The Pandanus or screw-pine is to be
met with on the southern slopes. Regarding the geological formation
of the hills, I extract a few general remarks from the Physical and
Political Geography of Assam. The Shillong plateau consists of a great
mass of gneiss, bare on the northern border, where it is broken into
hills, for the most part low and very irregular in outline, with
numerous outliers in the Lower Assam Valley, even close up to the
Himalayas. In the central region the gneiss is covered by transition
or sub-metamorphic rocks, consisting of a strong band of quartzites
overlying a mass of earthy schists. In the very centre of the range,
where the table-land attains its highest elevation, great masses of
intrusive diorite and granite occur; and the latter is found in dykes
piercing the gneiss and sub-metamorphic series throughout the southern