On the Bandeo Quartz-RocJt: 83 



tcresting subject must, to say tlie least, be vague and unsatis- 

 factory. Situated as I bave been, in a remote corner of Hin- 

 dostan, I bave been deprived of all means of reference to bbra- 

 ries, museums, &c. and, inexperienced as I am, I feel tbat I must 

 bave left much undone which even the opportunities of obser- 

 vation I iiave enjoyed might, if under more favourable auspices, 

 have enabled me to perform. But enough of this. 



I shall now reply in as distinct and brief a manner as I pos- 

 sibly can, to tlie queries and observations embodied in your notes. 

 A.nd, first, with regard to Note p. 834, Vol. VI. of your Journal. 

 You seem inclined to believe that, in-describing the quartz-bed 

 near Bandeo, as being divided into horizontal strata, while the 

 including clay-slate strata are arranged in a vertical position, 

 I have confounded the natural joints which so frequently occur 

 in quartz-rocks with the true planes of stratification. It may 

 be so ; and I have often wished for another opportunity of veri- 

 fying my first observation, made while on a march with my 

 corps through an enemy's country. This opportunity has as 

 yet been denied me, and I am vmwillingly compelled to leave 

 the subject in its present unsettled state. I must, at the same 

 time, remark, that with the jointed or fissured appearance de- 

 scribed by Captain Dangerfield, as quoted by you, I am per- 

 fectly familiar. It is a most characteristic feature of the pure 

 white quartz-rocks of this district ; many of which are so tra- 

 versed by cracks, that their original stratiform structure is com- 

 pletely obscured, and their whole mass resembles a congeries of 

 angular and rhomboidal fragments closely packed together, but 

 unconnected by any apparent cementing medium. The quartz- 

 rock of the Bandeo bed does not belong to this variety ; it has 

 a schistose texture, and its stratiform structure is very distinctly 

 marked, nor is it, generally speaking, characterized bv the joints 

 and fissures of the other. On the contrary, it is distinguished 

 by the immense extent and continuity of its tabular masses, 

 enormous slabs of which may be raised without difficulty, and 

 these, in some parts of India, arc used in place of beams in 

 roofing, and are made to span from wall to wall, even in halls 

 of large size, without risk from fracture. 



This rock Captain Dangerfield sometimes describes as horn- 

 stone, sometimes as flinty slate ; but, by whatever name it may 



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