BUNDELCUND. 79 



It and the trap subjacent to it belong, according to Mr. Carter, to an 

 older period of volcanic activity, of which the laterite was the final pro- 

 duction, capping the highest trappean mountains of the western ghauts: 

 as seen in the district under description it is still the top rock, but 

 we find here conditions which altogether invalidate some conjectures 

 that have been made regarding it, and throw much light upon the 

 otherwise difficult question of the original extent of the trap itself. Mr. 

 Carter says, " it always rests on what has been termed " overlying trap," 

 from which trap he supposes it to be derived by some process of meta- 

 morphism ; now, on the Vindhyans it is found at more than a hundred 

 miles from any trap, — on the ridge of the Bundairs at Dooreha, on the 

 Rewah plateau at Simeriah, on the ridge of the Rewah sandstone 

 over Punnah, on lofty hills south-east of Tirhowan, and in other odd 

 places. Those who know that in Indian Geology, laterite is one of the 

 many personifications of ' confusion,' will charitably suppose that 1 am 

 identifying totally distinct things ; I can only say that the facts are 

 persuasive : fortunately there is a standard of comparison in its nor- 

 mal position. Immediately to the south-west of 

 Dulputporo Hill. 



Dulputpore, on the Saugor and Heerapore road, 



there is a lofty hill, which is seen from great distances in all directions. 

 This is the place mentioned by Mr. Everest as Tuismahl ; his conjec- 

 ture as to the northern extension of the laterite is evidently founded 

 upon the report of the Bijawur iron works. The base of this hill is of 

 sandstone, the mass of it is trap, the compact basalt being here upper- 

 most; over all rises a peak about 200 feet high, it is of the rock-laterite 

 and its accompaniments'. The top hundred feet, more or less, are of the 

 laterite itself; with very little modification, and this perhaps due to differ- 

 ent observers, the descriptions of the rock far down in the peninsula, leave 

 no doubt of this being its exact equivalent, but some of the details con- 

 nected with its occurrence I cannot reconcile with those accounts. There 

 is nothing here which could, I think, lead one to suppose that it is a modi- 



