of the Hyderabad Country. 15 



are still in existence, have produced those effects which many 

 would attribute to the operation of very powerful agents. In 

 short, I believe that all these phenomena are the result of the 

 long continued agency of the weather. 



It is well known that masses of granite which have been 

 detached from the neighbouring hills, are worn down and dis- 

 integrated by the weather ; and also, that the lamella? or strata 

 of granite, which still retain their original situation, when ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere, split and slide down into the adjoin- 

 ing valleys*. Since then we have ocular proofs of the hills 

 being broken down and disintegrated by the weather, and since 

 these effects are never known to be produced by any other 

 cause, can we hesitate to conclude, that all the accumulations 

 of debris and detached masses of granite have originated in 

 the same manner? Effects are daily produced under our im- 

 mediate observation, exactly similar to those to be accounted 

 for ; and although, at first sight, the magnitude of the effect 

 may appear out of proportion to the cause, yet the latter will 

 be sufficiently adequate, if it be admitted, that it has continued 

 to operate through an immense lapse of ages, — a circumstance 

 which no one can possibly doubt. 



It may be argued, that earthquakes are much more power- 

 ful than the slow agency of the weather, and more adequate 

 to produce the effects under consideration. Earthquakes are 

 certainly among the most powerful causes with which we are 

 acquainted, in effecting changes on the crust of our globe; yet 

 their effects are very different from those I am attempting to 

 account for. The lamellae and strata of the Hyderabad gra- 

 nite gradually break up and scale off, exactly in the same 

 manner as we detach successively the layers of an onion. But 

 this appearance is very different from what we should be led 

 to expect, had it been produced by earthquakes ; for in that 

 case the ruined appearance of the granite would not have been 

 confined to the surface, but would have extended to the centre 

 of the hills. 



One of the most curious and interesting appearances in the 

 geology of the Hyderabad country, is that already mentioned, 

 of large masses of granite resting firmly on one another, in 

 the form of ancient ruins. These are quite different from the 

 masses which have been detached from the neighbouring hills, 

 and afterwards heaped confusedly together ; for their surfaces 

 are closely adapted, and four or five masses are often placed 



* The same effects arc produced upon granite in India, by great degrees 

 of heat, alternating with moisture, as those that are produced upon granite 

 in Che Alps of Switzerland, by intense frost succeeded by thaw. 



firmly 



