310 Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 



the phEenomena are so strongly marked, that they deserve a detailed descrip- 

 tion. 



On leaving the village of Korah, in the north-west department of the pro- 

 vince, and proceeding westward, a range of hills is entered, of small altitude, 

 but covering a considerable area. It is composed of a confused assem- 

 blage of basaltic cones in broken columns, or rather of a. number of sugar- 

 loaf-shaped masses piled one on the other. The surface of the hills is 

 covered with fragments of a hard greenstone, the crystals of felspar being nu- 

 merous. The perpendicular banks of the nullahs and ravines which intersect 

 this range, present, in some places, entire sections of the columnar basalt; 

 whilst others consist of a friable, sandy clay, disposed in horizontal, thinly 

 laminated strata of every shade of black, red, and yellow, to white; and asso- 

 ciated with it is a beautiful purple loafti. The basalt sometimes overlies these 

 beds, sometimes forms dykes in them ; and one side of the ravine frequently 

 consists of this variegated loam, and the opposite of basaltic pillars. In many 

 places the ground has an altered appearance ; the ironstone, of which large 

 quantities are lying about, appearing partially fused, and the clays or 

 variegated marls variously acted on, and always accompanied by dykes of 

 basalt. These hills continue about eight miles from Korah to the village of 

 Ukri, where they gradually decline into a plain, throwing off numerous ridges 

 or forks. About three miles distant, a solitary hill, with a flat but uneven 

 top, called Baboa, rises out of the plain. To this hill I wish to draw parti- 

 cular attention ; and the foregoing account of the basaltic range has been 

 given as necessary to a proper understanding of it. 



The first part of this plain is composed of thick beds of gravel, but further 

 westward it consists of the nummulitic formation. Out of this soil rises the 

 Baboa hill, composed of hard limestone, full of marine remains. One of the 

 forks projecting from the basaltic range reaches to within half a mile of the 

 hill, the ground near it being strewed with small fragments of igneous rock. 



The cause of the elevation of this hill is, in my opinion, distinctly visible in 

 the banks of a river which passes by its western base. They are from 20 (o 

 30 feet in height, and are composed of white calcareous marl, covered by a 

 thin bed of gravel. Immediately opposite the hill, these beds are cut through 

 by a dyke of very compact dark green basalt, forming, towards the river, a 

 wall about eight feet high ; its base being hid by a talus of gravel. In several 

 places on each side of this dyke, which is about 50 yards in breadth, independ- 

 ent masses of igneous rock break through the marl. They are principally 

 of a blunt, conical form, capped with portions of the marl, and consist of sphe- 



