142 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



the Deccan traps was ejected in our immediate neighbourhood from 

 a number of orifices in the surface of the ground, over the edges of 

 which a seething mass of molten mud from time to time welled forth 

 from below. 



Now the bottom of this mass of volcanic rock is found to rest on 

 certain strata geologically known as "the Bagh beds," shown by 

 the fossils which they contain to be of marine origin, and identified 

 with the rocks of the "Cretaceous Period" of Europe. 



But the lava flows that formed the bottom of the Deccan traps 

 were not deposited beneath the sea. For pent between successive 

 flows, "interstratified" with them, as geologists say, are found strata 

 of mud containing fresh water fossils. Moreover, the surface of the 

 Bagh beds, on which the Deccan traps rest, is not all smoothly 

 spread in level lines of horizontal stratification, as we should expect 

 the bottom of the sea to be, but worn into ridges and hollows, as 

 though it had been already elevated to the upper air, and exposed to 

 the action of the weather before the first flows of lava were poured 

 over it. 



Agrain, the fresh water beds interstratified with these show that 

 the first lava flows did not follow each other very quickly, for 

 there was time for them to cool and harden, and by exposure to the 

 weather to be worn into hollows, where were collected the water and 

 mud in which those organisms, both animal and vegetable, that were 

 killed by the next fiery flow passed their lives and were preserved in 

 death. 



Here, then, is another important fact recorded in our book. The 

 oldest of the lava flows that form the Deccan traps is newer than 

 the deposit of the Bagh beds, and was itself deposited in such 

 manner as to be exposed to the action of the weather. 



But after the formation of the fresh water beds interstratified at 

 the bottom of the Deccan traps, the volcanoes would seem to have 

 become more active, and the flows of lava to have followed each 

 other in quicker succession. For through a great area and depth 

 we find no more fresh water beds, and the bands of lava are found 

 to rest on each other " conformably," as geologists say, that is, the 

 upper are laid continuously and without disturbance on the lower. 

 These facts how that the underlying bands had not been exposed 



