TIDING STALSCAPE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Lieutenant E. A. Rowlatt cared to draw the attention of stalscape watchers with a taste for daylight-lit secondary calcite formations (speleothems) to the plain view of perpendicular cliffs of primitive limestone, from which are visible the pendulous stalactites (note 1) under which he had passed on 6th December 1844 above the banks of the river Tiding or Tidding: In the bed of this river are to be found a great variety of the different primitive rocks: lime is here met with in immense blocks, and granite, serpentine, &c. with numerous metalliferous stones, are mixed together in the greatest profusion. On leaving the bed of the Tiding, the road leads over the spurs of the mountains that continue down to the banks of the Burhampooter [Brahmaputra], and for some distance passes under the perpendicular cliffs of primitive limestone, from which are visible the pendulous stalactites that are peculiar to this formation; after passing the limits occupied by this rock the soil becomes micacios, and in a few places I observed mica slate to cross out from the surface. Arriving on the banks of the Burhampooter, the only path was from block to block, which being of great size and worn to a smooth surface from the action of the water, the passage over them was thereby rendered both arduous and difficult. The mountains in this neighbourhood are mostly covered with dense tree jungle, of great magnitude, for about two-thirds of their height, above which is grass, and near the summits bare rock; and in the dells between the mountains, small hill streams, of beautifully clear water, flow along the hollows until lost in the large rivers that intersect the country (ROWLATT, E A 1845: 482-483).s, and in a few places I observed mica slate to cross out from the surface. Arriving on the banks of the Burhampooter, the only path was from block to block, which being of great size and worn to a smooth surface from the action of the water, the passage over them was thereby rendered both arduous and difficult. The mountains in this neighbourhood are mostly covered with dense tree jungle, of great magnitude, for about two-thirds of their height, above which is grass, and near the summits bare rock; and in the dells between the mountains, small hill streams, of beautifully clear water, flow along the hollows until lost in the large rivers that intersect the country (ROWLATT, E A 1845: 482-483).