rainbows float, forming and dissolving as thé wind
sways the curtains of spray from side to side.
To the south of Churra the lime and coal measures
rise abruptly in flat-topped craggy hills, covered with
brushwood and small trees. Similar hills are seen far
westward across the intervening valleys in the Grarrow
country, rising in a series of steep isolated ranges, 300
to 400 feet above the general level of the country, and
always skirting the south face of the mountains. Considerable
caverns penetrate the limestone, the broken
surface of which presents many picturesque and beautiful
spots, like the same rock in England.
Westward the plateau becomes very hilly, bare, and
grassy, with the streams broad and full, but superficial
and rocky, precipitating themselves in low cascades
over tabular masses of sandstone. At Mamloo their
beds are deeper, and full of brushwood, and a splendid
valley and amphitheatre of red cliffs and cascades,
rivalling those of Moosmai, burst suddenly into view.
Mamloo is a large village, on the top of a spur to the
westward : it is buried in a small forest, particularly
rich in plants, and is defended by a stone wall behind ;
the only road is tunnelled through the sandstone rock,
under the wall ; and the spur on either side dips precipitously,
so that the place is almost impregnable if
properly defended. A sanguinary conflict took place
here between the British and the Khasias, which terminated
in the latter being driven over the precipices,
beneath which many of them were shot. The fan-
palm grows on the cliffs near Mamloo : it may be seen
on looking over the edge of the plateau, its long curved