182 Scientific Intelligence. 



and frequently separated by immense ravines ; the whole clothed with lux- 

 uriant forests of teak and other trees, producing some of the most beauti- 

 ful and romantic scenery of India. The elevation of this part of the range 

 seldom exceeds 3000 feet ; but advancing to the south, its height gradual- 

 ly increases, and the granite rocks begin to re-appear, continuing to form 

 the summit of the chain with little interruption all the way to Cape Co- 

 raorin. In nearly the same parallel of latitude, this trap formation is ob- 

 gerved to terminate also on the sea-coast, a little to the north of Fort Vic- 

 toria, or Bancoote, where it is succeeded by the iron-clay, or laterite (a 

 contemporaneous rock associating with trap,) which from thence extends 

 as the overlying rock, with little interruption, to the extremity of the Pe- 

 ninsula, covering the base of the mountains, and the whole of the narrow 

 belt of low-land that separates them from the sea, exhibiting a succession 

 of low rounded hills and undulations, and reposing on the primitive rocks, 

 which occasionally protrude above the surface, as at Malwar, Melundy, 

 Calicut, and some other points, where granite, for a short space, becomes 

 the surface rock. From the main-land the laterite passes over into Cey- 

 lon, where it re-appears under the name of kubook, and forms a similar de- 

 posit of some extent on the shore of that island. Passing onward from the 

 western or Malabar coast, round the extremity of the Peninsula, we leave 

 this extensive iron-clay formation behind, and crossing the granitic plains 

 of Travancore, which are strewed with enormous blocks of primitive rocks, 

 we arrive at the termination of the chain. Here the mountain ranges, 

 which support the central table-land, meet from both sides of the Penin- 

 sula, and converge to a point, within about thirty miles of Cape Comorin, 

 ending abruptly in a bluff granite peak of about 2000 feet high, from the 

 base of which a low range of similar rocks, forming a natural barrier to the 

 kingdom of Travancore, extends southward to the sea. The whole of this 

 western mountain range, and the narrow coast which lines its base, is re- 

 markable for the absence of rivers, and vallies of denudation, and conse- 

 quently of alluvial plains or deposits. The abrupt precipitous sides of the 

 mountains, rising almost perpendicularly from the sea, are nevertheless 

 covered, in general, by forests of the tallest trees and impenetrable jungles, 

 which admit of gaining but a vague and scanty knowledge of the mineral 

 treasures with which they probably abound, if we might be allowed to 

 draw inferences from the striking analogy in geological feature and out- 

 line between the mountain ranges and western coast of the South Ameri- 

 can continent and that just described, in some parts of which traces of 

 copper, gold, silver, and other ores have been found. 



Proceeding on to the eastern side of the Peninsula, and northward along 

 the foot of the mountains, we observe a country differing very considera- 

 bly from the Malabar coast in appearance and geological character. The 

 plains of the Cororaandel coast form rather a broad though unequal belt of 

 low land between the mountains and the sea, exliibiting the alluvial deposits 

 of nearly all the rivers and streams that descend from the southern portion 

 of the table-land. The mountain chain that forms the eastern boundary 

 of the Peninsula, after a short nprtherly course from Cape Comorin, be- 

 gins to diverge to the east, near where the great valley of Coimbitoor (al- 



