COAL AND IRON OF CUTTACK. 3 



" vailing color of the principal rock is red. As far as my observation 

 " goes, it never occurs stratified. Its texture often approaches to slate, 

 " and from its general decomposing and decomposed aspect, the quantity 

 " of red spots which it contains being the ill-formed garnets above 

 " noticed, and the frequent veins of red and white steatite which 

 " intersect it, it presents altogether a most remarkable appearance." 



The true gneissose nature of this rock will appear from the detailed 

 account given below. 



Mr. Stirling proceeds to say : — " The rock most abounding in this 

 " division of the district next to the granite" (gneiss) " is that singular 

 " substance called iron-clay by Jameson and laterite by Dr. Buchanan. 

 " It lies in beds of considerable depth at the foot of the granite hills, 

 " often advancing out for a distance of 10 or 15 miles into the plains, 

 " where it forms gently swelling rocky elevations, but never rises into 

 " hills : sometimes it is disposed in the manner of flat terraces of con- 

 " siderable dimensions, which look as if they had been constructed with 

 " much labor and skill The composition and a,spect of the Cuttack 

 " iron-clay are very remarkable, from the innumerable pores and amyg- 

 " daloidal cavities which it contains, filled with white and yellow Htho- 

 " marge, and from the quantities of iron ore pebbles and fragments 

 " of quartz imbedded in it. By far the most interesting circumstance, 

 " however, connected with it is its complete and intimate mixture with 

 " the granite, which has been traced in several instances, and speci- 

 " mens of which are in my possession, exhibiting the one rock entirely 

 " invested by the other, though it is not easy to pronounce which 

 " is the enclosing substance. The granite, at the places where the 

 " specimens were principally collected, appears to burst through an 

 " immense bed of the laterite, rising abruptly at a considerable angle. 

 " Numerous broken fragments are strewed all around the line of 

 " junction, and in some specimens the two rocks are so mixed together 

 " as to form a sort of coarse breccia or conglomerate." 



