Lieut.-Colonel Sykes on a portion of Dukhun. 415 



The basalts and hardest amygdaloids run so much into each other that the 

 h'ne of separation is not always readily distinguishable, excepting of course 

 the lines of horizontal stratification. I observed the prismatic disposition more 

 marked and perfect in the basalt strata than in the amygdaloids, and the more 

 or less perfect development of determinate forms was dependent on the com- 

 pactness and limited constituents of the rocks. Basalts and amygdaloids, how- 

 ever compact;, with many imbedded matters^ rarely formed columns. Perfect 

 columns were generally small, of four, five, or six sides ; but the prismatic 

 structure sometimes manifested itself in basaltic and amygdaloidal columns 

 many feet in diameter. A bare mention of the places where they occur will 

 testify to their extended localities. 



On the low table-land of Kurdah, near Serroor, between sixty and seventy miles east from the 

 Ghats, columnar basalt occupies an area of many square miles. Small columns are seen in most 

 of the slopes of the very narrow sinuous valleys of the flanks of the platform, and frequently the tops 

 or terminal planes of columns are observed on the table-land forming a pavement. The perfect 

 columns in the flanks are generally small, four, five, or six-sided, and rest on a stratum of basalt 

 or amygdaloid. In some spots the columns are articulated, in others not. In a mass of columns in 

 the face of the table-land towards Serroor the columns are of different lengths, but spring from the 

 same level. More articulations having been washed from the outer columns than from the inner by 

 monsoon torrents dashing over them, a pretty flight of steps remains. The columns of this table- 

 land are for the most part erect, but sometimes stand at various angles to the horizon, usually at 

 45°. In one instance, near the village of Kurdah, they lean from the east and west, towards a 

 central upright mass : these are about fourteen feet in length, and are not articulated. In a mass 

 of columns facing the west, and two miles south of the cavalry lines at Serroor, some are bent and 

 not articulated ; they are nevertheless associated with straight columns, which are articulated. At 

 Karkullah, thirty miles north-west of Poona, between Tellegaon and Loghur, a hill has been 

 scarped for the great military road. Very numerous small columns occur in the escarpment, and 

 they lie piled upon each other in a horizontal position ; the only instance of the kind within my 

 knowledge in Dukhun. Two or three hundred yards west of the village of Yewtee Purgunnah 

 Kurdeh, in the rocky banks of a rivulet, imperfect columns are seen. On the right bank they are 

 so marked, as to have excited the attention of the natives (an unusual event) ; and they are daubed 

 with red lead, in the manner of Hindoo deities, and venerated. 



At Kothool, twenty-two miles south of Ahmednuggur, there is a thick stratum of close-grained 

 gray homogeneous basalt in the face of the hill on which is seated the temple of Kundobah. Ver- 

 tical and horizontal fissures are seen in the lateral plane or exposed edge of this stratum, but 

 they are so far from each other as to leave huge blocks between them, giving the appearance of the 

 superstratum of the hill being supported by massive articulated pilasters. Parts of the exposed 

 edge are detached from its mass, leaving rude columns four or five feet in diameter, eight or ten 

 high, and composed of three or four weighty stones disposed to assume geometrical forms. In the 

 water courses near Kurroos Turruf Ranjungaon, columns are observable. The basalt is bluish 

 gray, compact, has a vitreous hue, and sharp fracture. The columns occur very abundantly in 

 the slope of the hills, on either side of a very narrow valley running westward from the village 

 of Ankoolner, Ahmednuggur Collectorate. They are five- or six-sided, articulated, and from a 

 foot to two feet and a half in diameter, and of various lengths ; the lateral planes perfect, but in 



