556 J. G. Malcolmson, Esq., on the Fossils of 



from the same plain ; and their whole appearance indicates that their re- 

 markable form is due to the circumstances which attended their elevation ; 

 and that they have not been subjected to any extensive denudation. 



About five miles north of the hot springs of Urjunah and four miles south 

 of those of Kair, sandstone caps a gently rising ground, covered with basaltic 

 soil. Near the last-mentioned town, many hot springs rise in the argillaceous 

 limestone, which has been remarkably broken up and altered by the globular 

 basalt protruding through it in different places, in masses several of which are 

 only a few yards in circumference. The limestone is, for the most part, 

 nearly horizonal, but it is occasionally more or less inclined, and, as is usual 

 with this formation, it has no regular direction or line of bearing. In a deep 

 well near the village, the water of which is of the usual temperature, the 

 limestone is unaltered ; but above the principal hot spring, some of the most 

 remarkable effects of igneous action in changing a stratified rock, are ex- 

 hibited. The principal part of the small hill is a whitish limestone, the stra- 

 tification of which is obliterated, and the rock projects in irregular masses 

 full of cavities passing deep into the mass of limestone, which is partly 

 crystalline, and in many places mixed or coated with jasper and quartz cry- 

 stals. Much calcareous tuff ('' Kunkur") is associated with these altered 

 rocks, and it fills up many of the cavities ; it is also found in the divisions of 

 the nodular basalt, and masses of it, scattered over the surrounding country, 

 are the only remains of springs which have been long closed up. Some por- 

 tions of the rock had the appearance, on the surface, of a semifused brick, 

 and had assumed something of a regular arrangement, while the centre 

 was composed of the limestone little altered. Large masses of porous scoria 

 also lay about. 



The principal springs issue at the foot of the rising ground, where the rock is most remarkably 

 altered. Their temperature (87°) was the same as that of Urjunah, on the other side of the 

 Pindee hills, and it did not vary during the hot and cold months of 1831 and 1833. The water 

 of this and many other springs is said to be equally copious at all seasons, covering the neigh- 

 bouring country with the richest vegetation, when all beyond is a black and parched waste. On 

 issuing from the rock, the water is sensibly acid, and in one spring, carbonic gas escapes with 

 the water. It is remarkably agreeable to the taste, and sparkles in the glass, as well as where 

 the stream passes over rapids. It contains a little muriate of soda, a minute quantity of sulphates, 

 and much carbonate of lime in solution, which is deposited on boiling, and in the bed of the 

 rivulet, where it has formed considerable masses of rock chiefly composed of the petrified vege- 

 tation of the banks. So quickly is this deposit formed near some little falls, that shells appear to 

 be imprisoned and entombed while adhering to the face of the rock ; and tufts of grass are 

 encrusted with sediment while their roots are still alive. If any doubt remained as to the nature 

 of the nodular limestone, known in India by the name of" Kunkur," it would be removed by the 

 sight here exhibited of all gradations of this substance actually forming, and varying from 



