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Himalayan Journals — Volume 2 by J. D. (Joseph Dalton) Hooker
page 300 of 625 (48%)

Lailang-kot is another village full of iron forges, from a height
near which a splendid view is obtained over the Churra flat. A few
old and very stunted shrubs of laurel and _Symplocos_ grow on its
bleak surface, and these are often sunk from one to three feet in a
well in the horizontally stratified sandstone. I could only account
for this by supposing it to arise from the drip from the trees, and
if so, it is a wonderful instance of the wearing effects of water,
and of the great age which small bushes sometimes attain.

The vegetation is more alpine at Kala-panee (elevation, 5,300 feet);
_Benthamia, Kadsura, Stauntonia, Illicium, Actinidia, Helwingia,
Corylopsis,_ and berberry--all Japan and Chinese, and most of them
Dorjiling genera--appear here, with the English yew, two
rhododendrons, and _Bucklandia._ There are no large trees, but a
bright green jungle of small ones and bushes, many of which are very
rare and curious. _Luculia Pinceana_ makes a gorgeous show here
in October.

The sandstone to the east of Kala-panee is capped by some beds, forty
feet thick, of conglomerate worn into cliffs; these are the remains
of a very extensive horizontally stratified formation, now all but
entirely denuded. In the valley itself, the sandstone alternates with
alum shales, which rest on a bed of quartz conglomerate, and the
latter on black greenstone. In the bed of the river, whose waters are
beautifully clear, are hornstone rocks, dipping north-east, and
striking north-west. Beyond the Kalapanee the road ascends about 600
feet, and is well quarried in hard greenstone; and passing through a
narrow gap of conglomerate rock,* [Formed of rolled masses of
greenstone and sandstone, united by a white and yellow cement.]
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