MIDNAPOEE, ORISSA, &C. 269 



Near Sonamookhy, to the east, this recent conglomerate, which 



forms an upper cake-like coating where the lateri- 

 Gravel beds. . 



tic rocks occur, rests upon a bed of loose quartz 



pebbles forming a coarse clean gravel. Most tsf the pebbles are well 



rounded, some of them being as big as a man's head. The same or a 



similar bed of coarse loose quartz gravel is seen again, south of Birsin- 



gha (about 2 miles south). 



Another point of interest connected with these laterite deposits is this. 



Gneiss debris in la- ^^'''^^ ''' Proportion as we approach the gneiss 

 *^"''®- rocks to the west, in the same proportion do the 



number and the size of the fragments of quartz, felspar, and other debris 

 of those rocks increase, clearly indicating the source from which such 

 have been derived. 



The laterite itself gradually thins out, as noticed above, and dies away 

 toward the west, becoming broken up into isolated patchas of smaller 

 and smaller extent and thickness until at last a few loose blocks may be 

 the only trace of its former occurrence. On the other hand the deposit 

 becomes more continuous, and thicker towards the east until it is 

 covered up by the clays. 



Over these lateritic rocks, there is widely spread a sandy clay often 

 itself composed to a large extent of the small rounded nodular concre- 

 tions of the laterite, and passing from this into an ordinary sandy clay 

 with kunkur, (calcareous). In this also, the relative amount of those 

 lateritic nodules steadily increases as the lateritic masses are approached. 

 These older-alluvial deposits are often of considerable thickness, but 

 have not, in Bancoorah, by any means so great a development as in 

 Burdwan to the north, or Midnapore to the south. 



In the district if Midnaporejthe lateritic rocks cover an immense area. 



Laterite in Mdna- ^^^^ ^^ ^^""^ ^'^o less cut up by intervening 

 P'"'®' patches of alluvial deposits, along the streams, &c., 



and therefore form a more continuous sheet of rock. . In the majority of 



