CHAPTER VI. 



Inpra-trappean Rock (Lameta Beds?). 

 Underlying' the Great Deccan Trap series and resting- sometimes 

 on the gneissic and sometimes on the Kaladgi or Bhima series are 

 certain deposits of sedimentary origin of small thickness and extent 

 in which no organic remains have heen found to show their age. Though 

 of very small importance from their limited extent^ they are yet 

 interesting, as some of them may represent the pre-trappean deposits 

 occurring in Central India, to which the name of Lameta beds has 

 been given from their occurring typically at the Lameta ghat near 

 Jabalpur. Some probably will be found to belong to the Deccan Trap 

 period. 



These deposits present a very different appearance from the hard 

 rocks of the Kaladgi and Bhima series, though at times they occupy 

 relatively similar stratigraphical positions, for, as a rule without any 

 known exception, they are in a soft unconsolidated condition or at 

 most only half consolidated. They are made up of the debris of the 

 various older rocks occurring around, with a considerable admixture 

 of red bole in nests or strings, or generally diffused through the 

 mass. 



The most common form these deposits present is that of soft 

 marly or clayey grits, with or without included pebbles of the older 

 rocks, especially of quartzite. Soft sandstones in thin beds and pure 

 clays are much less frequently seen. In many places atmospheric 

 agency has removed the matrix which enclosed the hard pebbles of 

 quartzite, &c., and the latter remain as beds of loose shingle lying on 

 the surface of the older rocks, but testifying by their presence to the 

 former existence of the pre-trappean deposits. 



( 165 ) 



