Chap. 2.] w. blanford, western india. 17 



precisely applicable to both at the present time, probably the same may 

 have been the case for the last two thousand years or more. The 

 geological portion of the paper, however, is not of much value. 

 Mr. Copeland thought that the sandstone hill near Ruttunpoor was of 

 volcanic origin, and the following sentence is rather amusing : '^ We were 

 informed that the fire damp (hydrogen gas) (a) was not uncommon in the 

 mines, and that the miners did not descend till the sun had risen suffi- 

 ciently to dispel the vapours.^^ 



The next observer in this country appears to have been Dr. Lush, 

 who published " Geological Notes on the Northern 



Lush, 1836. 



Concan and a small portion of Guzerat and 



Kattywar^' in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (d). He 



started from Bombay and appears to have travelled by Damaun and Bulsar 



to Surat and Broach ; he visited the agate mines, and thence went to 



Kathiawar. In the southern part of the country traversed he noticed 



strata of sandstone containing shells and resting upon the trap (these beds 



are identified by Carter with the sub-i^cent shell-concrete of Bombay) . • 



Dr. Lush states that the trap of the coast only extends to Bulsar and 



Gundavee, and he evidently believed that the Eajpeepla hills were 



entirely formed of the same sandstone as is seen on the Kiem and at 



the Cornelian mines near Broach. (This sandstone in reality only skirts 



the hills) . In describing the sandstone and conglomerate of Ruttunpoor 



he is quite right in correcting Mr. Copeland^s statement of the volcanic 



nature of Bawa Gorea hill, which, as he rightly says, does not contain a 



trace of trap, but he is in error in supposing the gravels from which the 



agates (or cornelians) are procured to belong to higher beds than these 



conglomerates and sandstones. He remarks the absence of trap pebbles in 



the conglomerates of Guzerat and Kathiawar. Malcolmson subsequently, 



in the paper already referred to, especially speaks of their occurrence. 



The fact is that they are undoubtedly extremely rare, but they do 



(a). Sic in orig. (J). Vol. V, p. 761, 



C ( 179 ) 



