272 AIIDNAPORE, OKISSAj &C. 



particles, generally full to pieces on exposure; in this respect as in 

 others, differing from the more moist and clayey varieties of the so- 

 called laterite, the peculiar character of which is to become harder on 

 exposure and desiccation. 



In very few places can the actual contact of this curious rock, 



" laterite," with the rocks which underlie it, be 



Few good sections. i. t • , r~i ht- i 



traced in this district. Ulose to Midnapore town 



an excellent section is seen near Gop House and to the west of the 

 station. Here in some places what looks like the decomposed upper 

 surface of the gneissose rocks can be just traced, 

 but no where sufBciently exposed to enable a de- 

 finite opinion to be formed of their character. This soft and clayey 

 mass with sharp angulaV pieces of quartz is here and there cemented 

 by peroxide of iron into a mass closely resembling the ordinary laterite 

 of the country. The laterite itself is of very variable thickness, in places 

 not more than a foot or two, while under Gop House more than fifty 

 feet are exposed of solid blocky laterite, arranged in large tabular 

 masses or beds which have a slight dip or inclination to the south. This 

 here rests upon a greyish-white and reddish clay, soft, soapy, and 

 felspathic, and in most respects like the ordinary kaolin clays resulting 

 from the decomposition of felspathic rocks. There is, in this locality, no 

 passage observable between the two rocks. The clay* below is but 

 slightly impregnated with iron, which in fact, only shews in ferruginous 

 patches or stains, while the mass of the laterite above, in immediate 

 junction, is of the most typical character. All this " laterite" contains 

 rounded fragments and pebbles of other rocks, of small size, the clay 

 beneath being quite free from such admixture. 



* This non-porous clay, covered by the open and fissured laterite above, forms the 

 water level of the district. Wells sunk through the laterite, north of this, passed through 

 some sixty feet, meeting no water until they had reached the clay below. 



