GEOLOGY. 



herst province. After leaving Amherst point, laterite appears 

 at Maulmain alternating with sandstone, and it is seen dis- 

 tinctly stratified at the base of the eastern mountains, at the 

 head of the Dahgyaing. 



This rock seems to be peculiarly Indian. Its name even is 

 not found in European and American works on geology. 

 When not exposed to the weather it has the appearance of a 

 porous iron clay, somtimes including fragments of other rocks; 

 and from its quality of hardening when exposed to the atmos- 

 phere, it has been used extensively for bricks for pagodas and 

 other purposes, and has hence been named Laterite, from 

 Later — a brick. 



Geologists are much divided in opinion whether to regard 

 it as a trap rock, or as a stratified one. In these provinces, it 

 appears to be more of a conglomerate than any thing else. 

 In some localities, as at Maulmain, it includes large fragments 

 of sandstone, several inches in diameter. The geological po- 

 sition of the laterite at Amherst and Maulmain, is precisely 

 that of decided beds of conglomerate near Tavoy, which 

 lies immediately above the slate strata that rests on the gfanite. 



The Tavoy conglomerate consists mainly of quartz pebbles, 

 or angular fragments of quartz united by oxide of iron, which 

 soils The fingers. Some parts of the strata are so fine that Dr. 

 M c Clelland pronounced specimens that were sent him to be 

 " sandstone, old." Other parts are coarse, with pebbles half 

 an inch in diameter, and in some parts the rock is slightly 

 amygdaloidal, approaching laterite; while on the other hand, 

 there are portions of the laterite at Amherst and Maulmain 

 which are considerably compact, with quartz fragments ; and 

 specimens might be selected with ease which could not be 

 distinguished from the Tavoy conglomerate. 



I never met with any rock even resembling laterite in the 

 valley of the Tenasserim ; and prof. Buckland does not appear 

 to have had any in Mr. Crawford's specimens from the valley 

 of the Irrawaddy. * 



coocrepcSu — Ga-won-gyouk. 



LIMESTONE. 



The limestone of the provinces wherever it has been traced, 

 is found resting on a thick succession of slate and sandstone 



