1877.] V. Ball — On Giant-Kettles (pot-Jioles) in India. 143 



conditions have been favourable, I have not observed pot-holes. I can recall 

 very many localities, some o£ them met with only during the present year, 

 in quartzites of Vindhyan age. 



Pot-holes may be rare in European streams from various reasons, but 

 where the conditions are favorable they must, like other forms of erosion, 

 irresistibly be produced. Although unable to quote instances from per- 

 sonal observation in streams, I have seen not a few on the sea coast where 

 the necessary movement to the pebbles is caused by the ebb and flow of the 

 tide or by currents. Some of those that I can remember were in Cam- 

 brian quartzites in the Bay of Dublin, where they often formed natural 

 aquaria which could be visited at low tide and generally yielded marine 

 animals. When the growth of weeds or zoophytes at the sides or bottom 

 prevents the further revolution of pebbles, such pot-holes cease to increase 

 their dimensions. 



In limestone rocks similar holes may at times be observed, but though 

 in some cases mechanical action may have had much to do with their for- 

 mation, chemical solution may have been the more efficient factor. 



For the benefit of any future historian I add the following facts 

 which may find a place in a chapter on the economic uses subserved by pot- 

 holes in India. Besides their more common employment as bathing-places 

 and substitutes for clothes-washing tubs, the smaller ones are much used by 

 the jungly aboriginal tribes for preparing the wild arrow-root or tehur. 

 The roots are pounded and crushed in these natural mortars, the stringy 

 portions are removed and the farinaceous feculse allowed to svibside at the 

 bottom of the water. My attention has frequently been drawn to this mode 

 of using them by the peculiarly offensive odour which arises from the refuse 

 in this manufacture. They are also often used for steeping the roots or 

 bark of certain trees the decoction from which is employed largely in 

 poisoning fish in the streams. 



Dr. Feistmak^tel said he was very much obliged to Mr. Ball for the 

 information regarding the mentioned cases of pot-holes which he had omit- 

 ted to notice, he greatly regretted not having known them, but they still 

 did not prove that the pot-holes are so worthless and uninteresting a subject 

 as it would seem from the remarks of Mr. Ball and Mr. H. F. Blanford, 

 the more so, if we consider all the papers which have been written by well- 

 known authors on this subject, not only on pot-holes unconnected now with 

 any water action, but also on those for^ied at present in streams and under 

 glaciers. His only intention was and is, to describe and illustrate properly 

 some cases of Indian pot-holes (which up to date has not been done) that 

 might be referred to in future, and that European geologists may know o£ 

 instances of pot-holes in India, which they certainly will not consider as 

 completely without interest ; the sketches will prove still more interesting. 



