242 GEOGNOSY OF INDIA. 



-erection of their famous Mil-forts. These insulated hills 

 are generally met with at the borders of the granite district, 

 when it is succeeded by the stratified, primitive, or transi- 

 tion rocks ; and, beinrr situated in the midst of very exten- 

 sive plains, when they are seen at some distance they have 

 very much the appearance of rocky islands in the midst of 

 the ocean. Some of the strongest hill-forts in India are 

 of this description; for instance, Chittledroog, Gooty, 

 Copaldroocr, Eidghur, &c. Granite and syenite are tra- 

 versed bylwo kinds of trap,— the one is contemporaneous 

 hornblende, the other secondary greenstone. In nearly the 

 same parallel of latitude this trap-formation is observed to 

 terminate also on the seacoast a httle to the north ot I'ort 

 Victoria or Bankot, where it is succeeded by the lalcnte, 

 which extends thence as an overlying rock, with little in- 

 terruption, to the extremity of the peninsula, covering the 

 base of the mountains, sometimes also their suminits, and 

 the whole narrow belt of land that separates them from the 

 sea ; exhibiting a succession of low rounded hills and ele- 

 vations, and resting on the primitive rocks, which sonaetimes 

 rise above the surface ; as at Malwan, Calicut, and some 

 other points, where granite, for a short space, becomes the 

 surface rock. From the mainland the laterite passes over 

 to Ceylon, where it reappears under the name o{kahuk,s.nd 

 forms a similar deposite of some extent on the shores ot the 



island. , , ^ ., 



From the extreme point of the land, on the eastern side 

 of the peninsula, and northward along the foot of the moun- 

 tains, we meet with a country differing considerably from 

 the Malabar coast in aspect and geognostical structure and 

 composition. The plains of the Coromandel coast form a 

 broad although unequal belt of land between the mountains 

 and the sea, composed partly of river, partly of sea allu- 

 vium. The mountain chain that forms the eastern boundary 

 of the peninsula begins to diverge eastward, where its con- 

 tinuity is interrupted by the Valley of Coimbetoor. Thence 

 it divides into many chains, parallel to the great western 

 rano-e, but of inferior height ; and in the farther progress 

 northward, after branching off into subordinate hilly groups, 

 occupying a wide tract of almost unknown country, and 

 affording valleys for the passage of the great rivers that 

 drain nearly aU the waters of the peninsula into the iJay 



