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Sketches of the Meteorology^ Geohgy, Agriculture^ Botany^ 

 and Zoology of the Southern Mahratta country. By Alex- 

 ander TuRNBULL Christie, M. D. Member of the Werne- 

 rian Society. With a Plate. (Continued from page 304. of 

 preceding volume.) 



Geognosy. 



X HE geognostical arrangement of the rocks of the Indian Pe- 

 ninsula is every where very simple ; and a great uniformity pre- 

 vails throughout the whole country, from Cape Comorin, even 

 as far as the Ganges. The same formation, in many instances, 

 extends, uninterruptedly, for several hundred miles in the same 

 direction ; and, consequently, that great variety, and those fre- 

 quent changes within a short distance, which are so conspicuous 

 in Britain, are seldom met with among the rocks of India. 



The principal rocks in the peninsula of India are granite, 

 transition rocks, old red sandstone, trap rocks, and, superior to 

 all these, a ferruginous claystone. The Darwar district, and 

 the adjoining coast, contain specimens of all these rocks ; and 

 will, therefore, serve as an example of the general geognostical 

 structure of the peninsula. 



Granite. 

 This appears to be the most abundant rock in the peninsula 

 of India. It stretches, with few interruptions, from Cape Co- 

 morin to beyond Nagpore and Ellichipore, occupying a great 

 part of the Carnatic, Malabar, and Mysore, nearly the whole of 

 the Nizam*'s dominions, and a large part of Barar*. It is also 

 met with in many places still farther north, viz. in Malwa *[■, 

 BundelcundJ, and in the neighbourhood of Delhi § ; and 

 Lieutenant Gerard found some of the highest of the Himalaya 

 Mountains to be principally composed of it ||. 



• I state this principally upon the authority of the late J)v Voysey, whom 

 I met at Hydrabad, in 1823; and I myself travelled through a great part of 

 the Nizam's dominions. 



I Vide Malcolm's Central India, vol. ii. Appendix. 



% Vide Transactions of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, vol. iv. p. 26. 



§ Vide Transactions of the Geological Society of London, New Series, 

 voi. i. p. 1, 2. II Ibid. p. 127- et seq. 



