18.55.] HISLOP UMRET COAL. .555 



is proved by its having rounded the loose stones* under its in- 

 fluence, the red soil itself contains satisfactory internal evidence 

 of its being an aqueously transported formation. On washing away 

 the finer red ferruginous particles, by putting some of the soil in 

 a vessel with water and stirring, subsequently renewing the water 

 until it comes off clear, the residue, as seen through a magni- 

 fying glass, will display its water-worn character. It is in fact a 

 gravel, consisting, in different localities, of hornblende, quartz, &c., 

 mixed up in various proportions, with some carbonate of lime, and 

 rounded and water-worn. Occasionally I have seen strata of coarse 

 water-worn pebbles in the red soil itself; and, on the first occasion 

 of observing this, it occurred to me to wash the red soil itself as 

 above stated. Ingredients foreign to the original composition of the 

 ferruginous hornblende-rock, of which the red soil is the debris, w411 

 not always be found in the soil itself, particularly if the deposit has 

 several feet of depth ; but those portions of it that are in near or 

 actual proximity to the water-worn stones interposed between the 

 granitic floor and the red soil most generally contain more or less 

 of the hornblendic and granitic debris in the shape of gravel. 



The conclusion, therefore, at which I have arrived, after extensive 

 and repeated observations over some hundred miles of country, re- 

 garding the origin and character of the Red Soil, is that it is the 

 water-spread debris of the ferruginous hornblendic rocks of Southern 

 India, which were under water either during or subsequent to decom- 

 position. The rough dark ridges of the hornblendic hills, as at 

 present seen, are the remains of the less decomposable nuclei of the 

 rock, piled on each other, after the matrix in which they were origin- 

 ally enveloped has been decomposed and washed away. 



10. On the connexion of the Umret Coal-beds with the Plant- 

 beds o/Nagpur ; and of both with those q/*BuRDWAN. 

 By the Rev. S. Hislop. 



[Communicated by J. C. Moore, Esq., Sec. G.S.] 



In the observations on the Jurassic Formation of the Ntigpur Ter- 

 ritory, which I had the honour to submit to your Societ)^, I showed 

 that it consisted of four members in the following descending orderf : 

 A, thick-bedded coarse ferruginous sandstone with a few stems of 

 trees ; b, laminated sandstone, exceedingly rich in vegetable remains ; 

 c, clay-shales, of various colours, in which are found the traces of 

 reptiles and worms ; and d, limestone, which within our area is gene- 

 rally crystallized from its contact with plutonic rocks. At the time 

 of penning these remarks, not having had an opportunity of inspect- 



* These stones are for the most part granitic gneiss, — evidently detached pieces 

 of the underlying rock. 



t Vide antea, p. 3G9. 

 VOL. XI. — PART I. 2 P 



