142 V. Ball — On Giant- Kettles (pot-Jioles) in India. [June, 



stream not having been sufficient to wash them out o£ the steep-sided holes 

 they had been instrumental in scooping." In his recently published 

 account of the South Mahratta country,* Mr. Foote has mentioned pot- 

 holes twice. 



Describing the remarkable scenery in the neighbourhood of the falls 

 of Gokak on the Ghatpraba river, he writes " For some distance above 

 the fall, the water runs at a very great pace, and has in consequence worn 

 many fine specimens of pot-holes in the very hard quartzite, some beds of 

 which, both here and in many neighbouring sections, are typical ' waxy' quart- 

 zites showing beautifully preserved rippling. These pot-holes are very 

 favourite bathing-places for numerous Brahmans and others, who perform 

 semi-religious pic-nics at this lovely spot in honor of Malingeshwar" 

 (p. 88). Again speaking of the Malprabha river we find — " During great 

 floods the water rises from 30 to 40 feet in the gorge, and flows with great im- 

 petuosity, forming numerous pot-holes of great size and depth which, as 

 at the Gokak falls, are at certain seasons largely resorted to by Hindus 

 anxious to wash away their sins in the purifying river." (p. 99.) There 

 is nothing here to suggest that Mr. Foote regarded the phenomena as 

 exceptional or requiring any elaborate explanation. 



In the year 1864, shortly after my arrival in the country, I joined Mr. 

 Hughes who was at that time engaged in the examination of the Bokaro 

 coal-field. I can remember very distinctly being much struck with the 

 pot-holes we met with in several river-beds, and on turning to Mr. Hughes' 

 memoir, I find the following allusion: "The felspathic sandstone holds 

 steadily on down the stream, worn into hollows of every conceivable 

 shape : pot-holes meet one at every step."t 



In my description of the Eaigarh and Hingir Coal-field, J when point- 

 ing out the lithological and structural characters of the upper sandstones 

 (Kamthis), I have written as follows — " Mechanically formed pot-holes are, 

 for some reason which I cannot explain, less common than in the Barakar 

 rocks." 



Here, it will be observed, I have made the scarcity of these pot-holes a 

 subject for comment, an abundance of them being the more normal state 

 of things. 



Dr. Feistmantel has expressed an unwillingness to receive assurances 

 that these are common phenomena unless such assurances are accompanied 

 by accurate measurements. Such details I am not at the present moment 

 prepared to give, but I must assert here, most positively, that there is not 

 a single formation in India which I have examined, in which, where the 



* Memoirs, Vol. XII. 



t Memoirs, Vol. VI, p. 91. 



X Records, Vol. VIII. p. 114. 



