rieties. 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
half of the boundary of the plains. To the south, in contact with
the gneiss and sub-metamorphics is a great volcanic outburst of trap,
which is stratified, and is brought to the surface with the general
rise of elevation along the face of the hills between Shella and
Theriaghat south of Cherrapunji. This has been described as the "Sylhet
trap." South of the main axis of this metamorphic and volcanic mass are
to be found strata of two well defined series: (1) the cretaceous,
and (2) nummulitic. The cretaceous contains several important
coalfields. The nummulitic series, which overlies the cretaceous,
attains a thickness of 900 feet in the Theria river, consisting of
alternating strata of compact limestones and sandstones. It is at
the exposure of these rocks on their downward dip from the edge of
the plateau that are situated the extensive limestone quarries of
the Khasi Hills. There are numerous limestone caves and underground
water-courses on the southern face of the hills. This series contains
coal-beds, e.g. the Cherrafield and that at Lakadong in the Jaintia
Hills. Some description of the remarkable Kyllang Rock may not be out
of place. Sir Joseph Hooker describes it as a dome of red granite,
5,400 feet above sea level, accessible from the north and east, but
almost perpendicular to the southward where the slope is 80 deg. for 600
feet. The elevation is said by Hooker to be 400 feet above the mean
level of the surrounding ridges and 700 feet above the bottom of
the valleys. The south or steepest side is encumbered with enormous
detached blocks, while the north is cl