Lieut.-Colonel Sykes on a portion of Dukhun. 423 



mirrors. In the temple at Pooluj south of Punderpoor, there is a slab six or 

 seven feet long and 2^ broad, covered with an inscription in the Kanree 

 language ; and in Punderpoor the streets are paved apparently with the 

 same basalt. At Jehoor and near Ahmednuggur is found a compact kind 

 like the last, but not so heavy. It has a crystalline character and sharp frac- 

 ture, and has angular siliceous pebbles imbedded : an occasional pebble is 

 loose in its cell. In the Happy Valley near Ahmednuggur the basalt is com- 

 pact and smooth, with reddish flat transparent crystals imbedded. It opposes 

 a feeble resistnnce to the hammer, and flies into fragments, some of which 

 have right angles. The basalt, even of the true columns, is not of a uniform 

 texture in different localities : at times it is blackish or gray, and very small, 

 granular or compact ; at others, earthy and ferruginous, particularly exter- 

 nally. The basis of the amygdaloids is clay, with more or less hornblende 

 disseminated : they embrace the ceflular, porphyritic, hard, friable, and de- 

 composing. I endeavoured to class them agreeably to the prevalence of 

 quartz, chalcedony, lime, mesotype, or stilbite, as imbedded minerals, but 

 found the method of very hmited application. Sometimes one mineral only 

 is imbedded, occasionally two, and often the whole. 



In Hurreechundurghur quartz amygdaloid prevails : at Aklapoor on the 

 Mool river it is characterized by mesotype, that mineral being imbedded in 

 large masses, and the radii (six or seven inches) are the longest I have seen. 

 At Nandoor it is porphyritic with minute crystalline specks of lime : near 

 Ahmednuggur is seen a cellular, indeed spongiform kind, which is hard, and 

 the cells are empty. A small cellular and pisiform variety is found in the 

 wonderful cave temples of Ellora, and some of the sculptured figures appear 

 as if marked by the smallpox. This observation is partially applicable to 

 the Boodh and Hindoo cave temples of Elephanta, Salsette, Karleh, Joonur, 

 the Naneh Ghat, and the Adjunteh Ghat; all of which are excavated in 

 basaltic or amygdaloidal strata. The stilbite or Heulandite amygdaloid is of 

 very common occurrence ; but the most prevalent kind is that in which all 

 the minerals noticed above are associated. The stone usually selected for 

 building is of various shades of gray or bluish gray ; has hornblende dis- 

 seminated in very small crystals ; works much easier than some of the com- 

 pacter basalts, but takes a good polish. The entire temples of Koorul and 

 Boleshwur, with their innumerable alto-relievo figures and laboured orna- 

 ments, are built of this variety of trap, which is, in fact, a greenstone, 

 although less crystalline than the European rock. There is a variety selected 

 carelessly, also used in building, which has the structure and nearly the 

 external characters of the last, but which, in weathering, exfoliates, and the 



