8M Mr Hardie's Observations on the 



by Ais time filled with water, which has now penetrated to a 

 considerable distance from the surface. In this state they are 

 exposed to the burning influence of a nearly vertical sun. The 

 expansion, occasioned by the heat, is of course great. Huge 

 masses of rock are detached, and the progress of decomposition 

 in the soft and slaty rock is carried on with great rapidity. The 

 country we are now considering is peculiarly liable to be affect- 

 ed by the above-mentioned causes ; and hence its rugged and 

 broken aspect. 



While marching from the small fort of Khariwarrah, near the 

 city of Dangerpore, towards the Bheel village of Bandeo, about 

 twelve miles distant, we observed a formation of quartz-rock, of 

 a very singular nature. It presented, in the distance, the ap- 

 pearance of an irregular crag^ rising perpendicularly from the 

 slope of the hills, the summit of which was rugged and uneven. 

 It greatly resembled a ruined fortification, rising through the 

 jungle, and was so striking an object, that even the most care- 

 less observer did not fail to remark it as something unusual, 

 even in this wild district, where so many precipices are observed. 

 In f^proaching nearer, it looks exactly like a huge wall raised 

 artificially, along the ridge of the hill. It presents a perpendi- 

 cular face on two sides. It follows the course of the slope, 

 reaches the very top, and again descends on the other side of the 

 hill. The average height of the perpendicular face may be be- 

 tween twenty and thirty feet ; the breadth of the bed between 

 eighteen and twenty. 



On examination, I found that this extraordinary bed was 

 composed of quartz rock of a bluish-grey colour, of a highly 

 crystalline structure, and that it was arranged in nearly horizon- 

 tal strata. The strata are very distinct, and the rock easily 

 splits into plates of about an inch in thickness. The rock of 

 which the hill itself is composed, is clay-slate of a soft nature, 

 and easily acted on by the weather ; and immense masses of it 

 w«re seeii strewing the line of march. All the hills we had 

 passed were composed of a similar rock. It was arranged in 

 nearly vertical strata *. 



• The author states, that the bed of quartz-rock, which was inchided be- 

 tween verbal strata of clay-slate, was itself arranged in horizontal strata. Was 



