the Eastern Portion of the Basaltic District of India. 353 



calcareous stone found at the bottom of the little cliff where the granite is 

 seen to underlie the fossils, a number of very perfect Melaniae ; I therefore 

 re-examined the different specimens, and detected in them fragments of the 

 same kind as those in the limestone; and Mr. Sowerby has since been able to 

 extract from the latter, specimens sufficiently distinct to be identified with the 

 Unio Deccanensis (PI. XLVIL, fig. 4 to 10,) found in the chert at Munnoor, 

 and another species {Unio'? tumida, fig-. 11 and 12,) not yet discovered else- 

 where. No other fossils were found in this locality. 



When it is considered, that the accumulation of freshwater shells occurs on 

 the precipitous descent of a mountain range, ascended with much difficulty by 

 travellers, it will be evident that the aspect of the country has been entirely 

 altered since these animals lived. 



Country between the Sichel Hills and Nagpoor. 



Towards the foot of the pass, the rock changes from the nodular basalt to 

 amygdaloid; and near its junction with the granite, masses of greenstone 

 porphyry, with large crystals of felspar, occur. The granite then reappears, 

 protruding in rounded masses through the soil of the level country around 

 Yedlabad. The bed of a stream near that town is strewed with fragments 

 of blue limestone and schist, resembling those of the basins of the Pennar 

 and Kistnah ; and higher up the stream, a fine white quartzose sandstone, 

 having a few imbedded fragments of quartz, is found in situ. It dips at a 

 slight angle to the south-west*. The surrounding country is covered by a 

 deep basaltic soil, so that the rock on which it rests could not be discovered ; 

 but the argillaceous limestone, passing, in its upper strata, into a greenish or 

 red schist, is traversed by a stream a few miles to the north. Short ra,nges of 

 trap hills, some of them at nearly right angles to the Sichel mountains, occur 

 to the north-east; and beyond them, an extensive tract of sandstone has been 

 traced for a great distance along the Wurdah. 



At Zynad, argillaceous limestone appears on the surface for several miles, 

 and agrees in every particular with the compact marbles of the diamond dis- 

 tricts of the Pennar and Kistnah. The strata sometimes dip at an angle of 

 40 degrees, but they are in general nearly horizontal, the edges of the layers 

 being disposed in steps on the slopes of gently-rising grounds. Rock crystal 

 and calcareous spar are distributed in thin seams between the strata, as well 

 as through the substance of the rock ; and along the vertical partings of the 

 strata, there are rows of circular cavities, which are generally empty, but are 



* Minute undulations, resembling those formed by the ripple of running water, were observed on 

 this sandstone, in a seam not quite parallel to the line of stratification. 



