410 , Lieut. -Colonel Sykes on a Portion of Dukhun. 



Dukhun^ the tract lies between the parallels of north latitude 16° 45' and 

 19° 27', and east longitude 73° 30' and 75° 53', and, roughly calculated, may 

 be said to comprise an area of about 26,000 square miles. 



Stratification. 



Previously to entering into descriptive details, I will state, in a few words, 

 that the whole of the country comprised within my boundaries is composed of 

 distinctly stratified trap rocks, without the intervention of the rocks of any 

 other formation. Whether at the level of the sea, or at the elevation of 4500 

 feet, in all and every part, beds of basalt and amygdaloid are found alternating, 

 whose superior and inferior planes preserve a striking parallelism to each other, 

 and, as far as the eye can judge, to the horizon. Barometrical measurements 

 and the course of rivers indicate a declination of the country to the east-south- 

 east and south-east. Prom the town of Goreh, latitude 19°03 and longitude 

 74°-05, on the Goreh river, following a mean course for the river until it falls 

 into the Beema, and subsequently, continuing a mean course for the Beema 

 until its junction with the Seena river, the distance is about 200 miles, and the 

 declination 671 feet : there may therefore be a trifling dip of the strata ; but 

 as a succession of low terraces occur in that distance, the apparent horizontal 

 position of the strata may be unaffected by the above difference of level. 



Dr. MacCulloch, describing the overlying or trap rocks, says, "these 

 masses are generally irregular, but sometimes bear indistinct marks of strati- 

 fication *." As Dr. MacCulloch's language implies the rare occurrence of 

 stratification, instead of its being a distinctive feature, at least of the Indian 

 branch of the trap family, I deem it necessary to quote the few authors who 

 have written on Indian geology, in confirmation of the fact I have stated f. 



* Classification of Rocks, p. 466. 



f " These mountains (the Vindhya range), like every other in Malwa, appear to be distinctly 

 stratified, consisting of alternate, horizontal beds of basalt or trap and amygdaloid. Fourteen of 

 these beds may in general be reckoned, the thinnest at the top, and rapidly increasing in thickness 

 as they lower in position, the basalt stratum at the bottom being about 200 feet thick." Again, 

 at page 327, he says : " In the upper plains of Malwa every point of view presents the same uni- 

 form and distinctly streaked appearance noticed in the Vindhya range." — Captain Dangerfield, 

 in Geological Notices of Malwa, in Appendix No. 2. to Sir John Malcolm's Central India, 

 pp. 322, 327. 



Dr. Voysey, in a paper on the Geological and Mineralogical Structure of the vicinity of Nag- 

 poor, says : " From the summit of the hill of Sitabaldi the difference in the outline of the rocks 

 eastward is very perceptible. The flattened summits and long flat outline, witii the numerous gaps 

 of the trap hills, are exchanged for the ridgy, peaked, sharp outline of the primary rocks." — 

 Physical Class of the Asiatic Researches, p. 127. 



In a second paper in the same work, on some petrified shells in the Gawelghur range of trap 



