APPENDIX. (J31 



decaying state ; and some of them are entirely penetrated 

 with long slender needles of schorlaceous actinote." * 



The hill on which Mail-Cotay stands consists of a kind of 

 gneiss, but the description is very confused : also a granitel 

 of black hornblende slate, mixed with white quartz in such 

 a manner that when broken longitudinally the quartz forms 

 veins, when transversely spots, f 



" The strata on the Ghats are much covered with the 

 soil, so that it is in a few places only that they are to 

 be seen. Having no compass, I could not ascertain their 

 course ; but far as I could judge from the sun in a country 

 so hilly, they appeared to run north and south, with a dip to 

 the east of about 30 degrees. Wherever it appears on the 

 surface, the rock, although extremely hard or tough, is in a 

 state of decay ; and owing to this decay, its stratified nature 

 is very evident. The plates, indeed, of which the strata con- 

 sist, are in general under a foot in thickness, and are sub- 

 divided into rhomboidal fragments by fissures which have a 

 smooth surface. It is properly an aggregate stone, composed 

 of quartz impregnated with hornblende. From this last it 

 acquires its great toughness. In decay, the hornblende in 

 some plates seems to waste faster than in others, and thus 

 leaves the stone divided into zones, which are alternately 

 porous and white. I am inclined to think that all moun- 

 tains of a hornblende nature are less rugged than those of 

 granite, owing to their being more easily decomposed by the 

 action of the air. This rock contains many small crystallised 

 particles, apparently of iron." J 



* Vol. ii. p. 62. t Vol. ii. p. 7i. 



J Vol. iii. p. 205. 



