583 



the new red sandstone and lias of England*, because their order of 

 superposition in the district examined by himself, is inverted, the 

 limestone underlying the sandstone; and he only ventures to suggest, 

 that they may belong to the older secondary, or younger transition 

 systems. 



Travertine and Kunkur. — Springs charged with carbonate of lime 

 prevail throughout the country, and in the bed of some of the rivers, 

 calcareous matter is so abundantly deposited as to cement the peb- 

 bles into a hard rock. " It is impossible," says the author, " to ex- 

 amine these accumulations without immediately perceiving the origin 

 of the nodular limestone or kunkur, which is so extensively distri- 

 buted in India." 



Thermal Springs and Mineral Waters. — At Kair (lat. 19° 55', 

 long. 78° 56') and Urjunah, springs having a temperature of 87°, 

 and charged with carbonic acid gas, issue through the limestone ; 

 and one, at the former locality, contains also a little muriate of 

 soda, a minute quantity of sulphate of lime, and much carbonate of 

 lime. At Byorah (lat. 17° 57', long. 80° 20') is a spring, the tem- 

 perature of which is 110°; and at Badrachellum, (lat, 17° 43', 

 long. 80® 79') one possessing a temperature of 140°, and containing 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, and sulphates and muriates of soda and lime. 



A minute description is given of the mineral waters of the Lonar 

 Lake, (lat. 20°, long. 76° 30') and of the natron which is deposited 

 in a layer beneath its muddy bottom. The water of the lake is clear, 

 its specific gravity is 1027*65, and it has no unpleasant smell ; but 

 the mud at its bottom is highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen. 

 The salt under the mud accumulates slowly, and is extracted only 

 once in several years. It consists of carbonic acid 38", soda 40*9, 

 water tO'6, insoluble matter "5, and a trace of a sulphate ; and thus 

 corresponds in composition with the Trona, or striated soda from 

 the Lakes of Fezzan, analyzed by Mr. R. Phillipsf, and approaches 

 somewhat nearer to the equivalent numbers of the sesquicarbonate 

 established by that analysis. The water of the Lonar lake contains, 

 besides a little potash, muriate of soda 29 grains, sesquicarbonate 

 of soda 4" 2 nearly, and sulphate of soda "l, in 1,000 grains of 

 water. No lime was detected in it, nor any magnesia. The 

 absence of the former Mr. Malcolmson says, is easily accounted 

 for, as the sesquicarbonate of soda and the water itself precipitated 

 the sulphate and muriate of lime, notwithstanding the mutual de- 

 composition they undergo when in a semifluid state. ,In account- 

 ing for the production of the natron, he adopts the theory of Ber- 

 thollet for the formation of that salt in the lakes of Egypt, viz., a 

 mutual decomposition of the muriate of soda and carbonate of lime, 

 when in a pasty state ; but as the natron of Fezzan and the Lonar 

 lake contains half an equivalent more of carbonic acid than can be 



* See Major Franklin's memoir on Bundelcund, &c., in the Geol. 

 Trans., 2nd ser., vol. iii. p. 191, eiseq., also Asiatic Researches, vol, xviii. 

 p. 24, ef seq. 



t Journal of the Royal Institution, vol. vii, p. 294. 



