80 BUNDELCUND. 



fied basalt. I have not seen the statement argued in any detail, but as 



an opinion' it is very common, that the basalt passes into wacken and this 



into laterite — the term wacken meaning earthy decomposing trap — this 



is the opinion adopted and explained by Mr. Carter in his Summary. 



Here also there is a soft earthy rock underlying the jaspideous laterite, 



and allied to it, it has moreover evidently undergone modification and 



reconstruction, but I saw no reason to suppose that any part of it had 



ever been, in its present position, a trap rock — and in confirmation of 



this, the entire lateritic group, identical in both its terms with the peak 



of Dulputpoor hill, is seen resting on the sandstone or shale of the Vin- 



dhyans, far removed from any actual basalt and where itself affords a 



very plausible proof that the basalt never existed. 



Not having come to any opinion upon the exact origin of this 



strange formation, my description must be strag- 



Description of rock. . - " 



ghng — both portions ot it owe their prominent 



features to the action of molecular forces since deposition: the la- 

 terite is primarily a clay more or less impregnated with brown 

 haematite; these elements exist either completely amalgamated, when 

 the rock is like semi-jasper, or separated to any degree, leaving a white 

 earth and the deep red or brown iron oxide in contact: the ever 

 varying structure of this rock is generally traceable to the segre- 

 gation of the iron, a concretionary arrangement is naturally the most 

 common, but the stages of the process produce a great variety of appear- 

 ance ; those irregular tubes, of a third of an inch in average width, 

 traversing the mass, are still to me a residual phenomenon : Mr. Carter 

 attributes them also to the concentration of the iron, and no doubt, in 

 the case he describes it may be so, but in the most perfect examples I 

 met with there was not any trace of such an arrangement, the tubes were 

 often empty, without any lining, and passing indifferently through the 

 varieties of the matrix, without concentric margin : perhaps they are con- 

 nected with the general induration of the rock. 



