Lieut. Newbold on Rock-Basins in Southern India. 63 
shallow channels worn in the granite in the direction of the current 
of water; and the author mentions in particular one, consisting of 
forty basin-shaped cavities near the ruins of the pavilion of the sixty 
columns at Annagundi (also lat. 15° 14’, long. 76° 37’). Below the 
anicut of Sanapore, near Bijanugger, where the river bursts through 
a natural barrier of granite, the rocks both on the bed and at the 
sides are honey-combed ; and still higher up the river, below the 
aniqut of Wullanapore (lat. 15° 6’ N. long. 76° 22’ E.), the gneiss 
forming the bed of the river is very greatly eroded, as well as the 
basalt of adyke. The different effects of water on rocks dependent 
on their relative position, the author says, is forcibly illustrated in 
this part of the river. Above the anicut the bed of the ‘l’‘oombud- 
dra is slightly inclined, the stream flowing in one smooth and ma- 
jestic sheet nearly 300 yards in breadth over rocks, the surface of 
which is almost unimpaired, and a Hindu inscription, on which 
the waters have glided upwards of three centuries, retains its cha- 
racters almost as fresh as if cut only a year, while, in the rapids 
below the anicut, the strata are perfectly honey-combed. 
The interior diameter of these basins is generally Jarger than that 
of the orifice, resembling a compressed globular vessel, and at the 
bottom there is a conical projection 2 or 3 inches in height, somewhat 
resembling that of a common black wine-bottle. The part where 
the water enters is usually the deepest, and in old cavities the margin, 
as well as that on the opposite side, is often worn back ; the sides, 
bottom and lips of the orifice are however smooth. The funnel-shaped 
cavities, which are more rare than the basin-shaped, almost invariably 
occur where a loose block of rock has been worn quite through, or 
where water falls on or near the point at which two actual fissures 
intersect the rock at considerable angles. Many of the superficial 
erosions resemble the hoof of a horse, having a frog-like projection 
in the centre. The largest rock-basin which Mr, Newbold had seen 
was 300 feet deep and 750 in circumference. It was in gneiss, and 
immediately below the great falls of Gairsippa, in the western 
Ghauts, where a river 100 yards broad and 10 feet deep falls, during « 
the monsoons, over a scarp upwards of 1000 feet high. 
It is during the period when the waters of the river begin to di- 
minish and an endless succession of small cascades or rapids is 
formed, that most of the cavities are worn in the higher portions of 
the rocks, and when these-are left dry and the bulk of the river is 
still further reduced, that the cavities at a lower level are acted upon 
for a time. Some rock masses, after having had holes worn on one 
face, and been subsequently detached from their position and in- 
verted, and again eroded on another face, present the singular ap~ 
pearance of having cavities on upper and under surfaces. In the 
formation and enlargement of the basins, Mr. Newbold is of opi- 
nion, that the erosion is the work of water, assisted only by the 
effects of the atmosphere upon the rock during the dry season ; and 
he thinks that these two agents are fully adequate to make the cavi- 
ues with [without ?] the aidofa natural decomposition of the strata or 
the attrition of blocks and pebbles rolled along by the current, though 
