Southern Indian the origifi of the KunJcer, Sfc. 531 



facts. The calcareous conglomerates at present forming 

 along the shores of the Red Sea and Mediterranean, are 

 little different from the present kunkrous conglomerates of 

 India. 



It may also be added, that the surface soils of Southern India, 

 whether of the red alluvial or the black regur, are frequently 

 so strongly impregnated witli muriate and carbonate of soda, 

 as to be utterly unfit for the purposes of agriculture. Many 

 of the springs in such situations are still brackish, holding a 

 portion of these salts in solution, but are quite inadequate to 

 have caused their diffusion in the superincumbent soil to the 

 present immense amount. 



It is difficult to classify a formation still going on, and to 

 fix the period, geologically, when it commenced, as it is seen 

 in all rocks from the granite to alluvium. We have sufficient 

 evidence, however, to divide it into two periods, viz. that im- 

 mediately prior to the deposition of the regur, which it often 

 underlies in thick beds, and the present formation, going on. 

 The kunker characterized by the remains of the mastodon at 

 Hingoli, and the kunker conglomerate imbedding the mam- 

 moth near Nursingapore, like the travertine of Rome, which 

 imbeds the remains of this animal and of existing species of 

 freshwater shells, may be referred to the post pleiocene pe- 

 riod. 



Since the discovery of tiie first fossil bed I have found an- 

 other near the temple of Hoodelaity on the same range, of con- 

 siderably greater extent, being more than ten feet thick, rest- 

 ing on the ledge of a precipice thirty feet above the present 

 level of a stream formed by a thermal spring. But not a 

 vestige of the spring that deposited this bed is to be seen. 

 The stems and plants it fossilizes are in a much more distinct 

 and perfect form, and in addition to Melania and Planorbis, 

 I found fragments of Unio, and a shell having the suborbi- 

 cular shape o{ Cyrcna with the thinness oi Cyclas\ two forms 

 of freshwater Conchifer that often pass into each other; the 

 hinge was not visible. A very perfect impression of a leaf, 

 and a number of curious cylindrical bulbiform and reniform 

 bodies, probably vegetable forms, were found. The vertical 

 surface of this cliff presents in its layers all the curved and 

 geodic forms seen in oriental agate, and imbeds solid frag- 

 ments of a more ancient kunker. The height of the sand- 

 stone cliffs forming the sides of tlie fissure (probably a fault), 

 1 found, by a trigonometrical observation, to be seventy-five 

 feet from the bed of the stream. 



Specimens of some of the fossil shells and supposed petri- 

 fied vegetable forms have been forwarded to the Museum of 



2 N 2 



