A levelling line along the Saharanpur-DehraDun-Mussoorie highway crosses the NW Outer Himalaya. The line has been surveyed over most parts of its length several times at irregular intervals since 1861. The observations show that there was coseismic uplift along the line during the great Kangra earthquake of 1905. But most benchmarks have started subsiding in the decades following the earthquake. This is seen as evidence that the upper crust along and adjoining the levelling line experiences a cyclic process of strain accumulation and release in great earthquakes. ¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union