86 Ncic Red Sandstone of India. 



these may have derived their saHne properties from the soil; 

 nor is their occurrence confined exclusively to such tracts. 

 Many of the saline soils of the Gangetic provinces have un- 

 doubtedly been transported from a great distance. 



It is not my object at this time to give a minute description 

 of the Indian new red sandstone formation, or to point out all 

 of the different forms in which the rocks composing it exist. It 

 will be sufficient for my purpose to remark, that, interposed be- 

 tween the older and highly inclined strata, and a horizontally 

 stratified limestone series, which is supposed to be the type of 

 the lias of England, there occurs an immense sandstone depo- 

 site, which flanks, throughout the whole of India as yet exa- 

 mined, our great primitive districts, as well as our overlying trap- 

 rocks, to which latter it is subjacent ; and that to this great for- 

 mation the hill of Cheetore, as well as the neighbouring boun- 

 dary ranges between ]\Ieywar and Harvistee, belong. A com- 

 mon variety of this sandstone resembles, in its mineralogical 

 characters, a nearly pure quartz-rock. It is hard, compact, and 

 is almost entirely composed of quartz, having very little of the 

 appearance of a re-united rock. Of this variety consist the 

 waved strata, which form the summit of the Cheetore Hill, and 

 a similar variety is observed topping the boundary ranges just 

 alluded to, and is also extensively distributed throughout the 

 whole of Harvistee, in which district it rises into low tabular 

 hills and ranges, and in some one or other of its modifications, 

 is spread over the greater portion of the plateau which this dis- 

 trict exhibits. It is occasionally concealed from view by irre- 

 gular patches of the lias limestone above alluded to. 



The shales, sandstone-slates, slate-clays, &c., belong to the 

 same era. In many instances, the inferior shales much re- 

 semble those of the coal-measures, and future observation may 

 probably discover in some of them deposites analogous to those 

 described in the Geological Transactions, as underlying the mag- 

 nesian limestones of England, and which have been identified 

 with several remarkable continental formations. This, however, 

 is a point* for after consideration; and, in the mean time, the 

 whole series, including slates, sandstones, &c., we are in the 

 habit of cqjisidering as the type of the iiew red sandstone for- 

 mation, the phrase being understood in its most extended sense. 



