60 W. BLANFOKD, M^ESTERN INDIA. [PaRT I. 



taken in connexion with the flattened summit of" the hills and the lines 

 of stratification constantly conspicuously seen upon them^ it enables a 

 geologist in Western and Central India to distinguish, almost with 

 certainty, which are trap hills, from a distance even of several 

 miles. 



The peculiarity consists in the paucity of large trees, and the abund- 

 ance of grass, which is frequently 3 to 4 feet in height. This grass 

 dries almost immediately after the end of the monsoon and forms a 

 natural hay, the principal food of the herbivorous animals of the country, 

 both wild and domestic. The paucity of trees appears due to several 

 causes, — the wanton destruction of the forests by wood-cutters, the annual 

 burning of the grass, and its luxurious growth, which must choke the 

 young trees. Locally, on the upland flats, the small depth of soil also 

 is unfavorable to the growth of large trees. Those trees which do occur 

 moreover are, almost without exception, deciduous, and lose their leaves 

 very early in the season, while many do not put forth new leaves till the 

 beginning of the rains. This is especially the case with the Sah (Bos- 

 wellia thurifera), one of the most abundant. The result is that through- 

 out the cold weather from November till March all the trap country 

 presents an uniform straw coloured surface with but very few spots of 

 o-reen to break the monotony, while in March, April and the greater 

 portion of May after the grass is mostly burnt, the black soil, black 

 rocks, and burnt grass present an aspect of desolation unbroken often 

 by a single green leaf for more than a month after Eastern India is 

 bright with fresh foliage. The only season when the trap coxintry has 

 any beauty is during the rains. 



In Section XI of the second part of this Memoir, some re- 

 markable sedimentary beds, forming a large portion of the base of the 

 present series, will be described. These are evidently a large deve- 

 lopment of the intertrappean formation accumulated under peculiar 

 conditions. 

 ( 223 ) 



