116 . "W. BLANFOllD^ WESTERN INDIA. [PaRT II- 



of quartz^ so that a weathered surface resembles granite at the first 

 glance. This is a very massive bed, very argillaceous in parts, about 

 30 feet in thickness. At the base are 6 or 8 feet of a pecuhar mottled 

 ferruginous sandstone, green and red in colour, the red portions chiefly 

 composed of peroxide of iron, and having a distinctly concretionary 

 structure. The green portions and the sandstone above are probably 

 coloured by silicate of the protoxide of iron, perhaps a form of green 

 earth derived from the traps by percolation.'^ 



Beneath the • above described beds there is a great thickness of 

 coarse compact sandstone, white in colour generally, with occasional 

 brown and reddish bands. The beds are, for the most part, more or less 

 felspathic, or, to speak more correctly, argillaceous, for the interspersed 

 grains which were, in all probability, originally felsparf, have decomposed 

 into clay, as is commonly the case in the Damudas. Some beds are 

 so coarse as to form grits, others are conglomeritic. Trap, doubtless 

 intrusive, occurs somewhat irregularly, and not in well defined dykes. 

 These sandstones continue to the southern fault by which they are tilted 

 up against the traps. The section altogether is about ^ mile long ; if 

 the average dip be considered to be 12°, which it is very nearly, the 

 approximate thickness must be 500 feet. 



Passing to the westward, the band of sandstone increases in breadth, 



and rises into hills. At Gordo, the characteristic 

 Gordo. 



calcareous cherty bed is again conspicuous at the 



Near Salbaldee. ^^V) ^^^^ ^^^ ^^'^^ occurs again north of Salbaldee. 



At the latter place, the Maroo river issues from the 



hills, and the sandstones are well seen in the gorge through which it flows. 



* It appears very probable that these upper beds represent the rocks immediately 

 beneath the trap near Nagpoor, which in their turn exactly resemble the Lameta beds of 

 Jubbulpoor. The relations of the lower rocks of Dhabka, Salbaldee, &c., have been 

 treated of before. Part I, Chapter 9. 



f It would, however, scarcely be correct to term such sandstones simply argillaceous 

 sandstones. In the latter the clay is generally dispersed throughout the mass, not collected 

 together as when it results from the decomposition of felspar. In this case the rocks 

 are truly originally felspathic sandstones. 



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