NOTE ON THE LATERITE OF ORISSA. 283 



a small rocky island, on which stands the temple of Devalsur, not only- 

 are the small cracks in a conglomerate occurring there, which belongs 

 to the Atgurh basin sandstone, filled by a nodular ferruginous sub- 

 stance, but some of the pebbles have been removed and are replaced 

 by it, so that the conglomerate appears as if containing pebbles of 

 laterite, A little lower down on the opposite (north) bank of the river, 

 the same ferruginous rock is seen to fill the hollows, caused b^ wear in 

 a sandstone. In both cases it can scarcely be the result of any thing 

 but deposition, in its pi'esent form, on the subjacent rock. It may, how- 

 ever, be caused by the re-consolidation of denuded laterite. 



The gravel containing ferruginous nodules in great abundance near 

 Balasore also contains pebbles and sand transported from a distance; 

 indeed as before remarked, it is merely a modification of the more ordi- 

 nary form of the rock. This modification is not, however, confined to 

 the neighbourhood of Balasore, where it appears to rest on alluvium, 

 but'occasionally occurs resting on gneiss, in other parts of the province. 

 This gravelly form of the laterite may in some places be* contemporaneous 

 with the older alluvium and formed from denudation of the more mas- 

 sive variety. 



II. The underlying variety greatly resembles the former wherever 



it is exposed, as it hardens and becomes covered 

 The underlying variety. 



with a brown glaze in the same manner. It is 



nevertheless of an entirely different constitution, and, where it rests on 



gneiss, is always found to consist mainly of a true clay, generally more 



or less mottled, and much more ferruginous near the surface than below ; 



it varies in colour in consequence from red above to yellow at a short 



« 



distance beneath, and, at a greater depth, to nearly white. It contains 

 a few pipes, of small diameter, evidently produced by the percolation 

 of water. Throughout the clay occur irregular pieces, varying in size 

 and shape, but seldom exceeding two or three inches in thickness, of 

 a hard stony ferruginous substance, which sometimes appear, when 



