the Eastern Portion of the Basaltic District of India. 539 



Peninsula. This river takes its rise to the west of Amerkantack, and traversing- 

 a country of granite, sandstone, and basalt, abounding- in iron and the finest 

 dolomitic marbles, reaches the Indian Ocean through the alluvial plains of 

 Guzerat. At Jabulpoor and in the neighbourhood of Saugur, fossil mammalia, 

 shells, and silicified palms have been recently discovered. Fossil shells have 

 also been found in some of the trap hills, which have broken up the sandstone 

 near the sources of the Taptee. This river is separated from the Nerbudda 

 by a range of basaltic mountains ; and having the same direction as the Ner- 

 budda, its whole course appears to be in the basaltic formation. (See N.W. 

 cornerofMap, PI. XLVI.) 



All the other great rivers of the Peninsula, including the Godavery, Kistnah, 

 Pennar, and Cauvary issue from the western Ghats, from the summits of which 

 the country slopes gradually to the east, except at the extreme south, where 

 the descent to the plains of the Carnatic is considerable and precipitous. 



The Godavery (see Map, PI. XLVI.) rises in the basaltic region described 

 by Colonel Sykes, (Geol. Trans. Vol. IV. pt. 2, 1836) and, greatly increased 

 in size, it enters the granitic table land of the Deckan, and flows at the south- 

 ern foot of the Sichel Mountains into a sandstone and argillaceous limestone 

 country. This district is similar to that of Bundlecund and Malwa; it also 

 contains diamonds, and has been much broken up by erupted rocks. From 

 the north, the Godavery derives large supplies of water from the great rivers 

 rising south of the Nerbudda and the Taptee, in basaltic tracts, the soil of 

 which being retentive of moisture, the water is everywhere near the sur- 

 face. From the south it receives only the Munjerah river, which, flowing 

 through arid granitic plains, furnishes but a scanty addition of water, except 

 during the rainy season. Through a pass in the gneiss mountain of Papcon- 

 duh it enters the plains of the Coromandel coast. In this district the sand- 

 stone reappears, at an elevation little above that of the sea ; but basaltic hills, 

 several hundred feet in height, in which marine fossils have recently been 

 discovered, exist almost within the delta formed by its sediment. 



The Kistnah derives its waters from a number of considerable rivers, rising 

 in the basaltic and gneiss summits of the western Ghats, which condense 

 the greater part of the clouds carried by the south-west monsoon from the 

 Indian Ocean. Flowing through the territories of the southern Mahrattas, a 

 country covered with a rich basaltic soil, and abounding in schistose limestone, 

 sandstone, granitic rocks, and basalt, it enters the granitic platform of the 

 Deckan, the limits of which in this direction are unknown. The limestones 

 and sandstones, however, soon reappear on descending the river, and extend 

 across to the basin of the Pennar, and as far as the ascent to the granitic plat- 



VOL. V. SECOND SERIES. 4 A 



