the Eastern Portion of the Basaltic District of India. 565 



cible elevation was sustained by the margin of the lake, when the explosion or subsidence hap- 

 pened from which the great depression took its origin. 



Prom Lonar the basaltic district extends to the south as far as Beder ; to 

 the west, 200 miles to Bombay ; and northward, to the banks of the Nerbudda, 

 near the ancient cities of Indoor and Mhysir, reported to have been buried 

 at a remote period under volcanic eruptions. To the east, the great basaltic 

 country of Berar extends as far as Nagpoor ; and the Sichel range passes in 

 a S.E. by E. direction to the confluence of the Wurdah and Godavery, and 

 towards the eastern ghats. Hot springs and streams loaded with carbonate 

 of lime, occur along the line of elevation of these mountains at Mahoor, Urju- 

 nah, Kair, Byorah, and at Badrachellum, a short distance above the pass 

 through which the Godavery reaches the alluvial plains of the coast. The 

 spring of Byorah is surrounded by sandstone and limestone rocks, and carbo- 

 nic acid escapes with the water, which has a temperature of 1 10° and holds lime 

 in solution*. That of Badrachellum, which rises in the sandy bed of the Go- 

 davery, has a temperature of 140°, and contains sulphuretted hydrogen, also 

 sulphates and muriates of soda and lime. A sandstone resembling the cement 

 of the Bangnapilly diamond breccia and the rock of Won, protrudes from the 

 sandy bed of the river near the spring; and granite, basalt, and a red schist 

 resembling that so common in the diamond'districts, occur in the neighbour- 

 hood ; diamonds also are occasionally found. Other hot springs are reported 

 to exist in this line of elevation ; but that wild and little-known country, far 

 removed from the residence of any European, must long remain in a great 

 measure unexplored. 



The facts stated in the preceding pages prove that the basaltic rocks, by which so much of 

 Western and Central India are covered, are more recent than the sandstone and argillaceous lime- 

 stone of the basins of the Pennar, Kistnah, Godavery, and of the mountains south of the Ner- 

 budda ; and that, notwithstanding the frequent occurrence of these rocks in a horizontal position, 

 they have been subjected to violent operations, which have in many instances elevated the strata 

 and remarkably altered the rocks themselves. It also appears, from observations made on the 

 borders of the trap districts, and in other places where the primary rocks and the sandstones and 

 limestones are not entirely concealed, that the basalt has burst forth from numerous fractures 

 in these formations, probably simultaneously, although often forming insulated masses. It is 

 possible, that more than one period of eruptive violence may have occurred between the era of 

 the formation of the greenstone dykes, so common in the granitic districts, and the conclusion of 

 the eruptions by which the fossils were entombed ; but at present there is no proof of such 

 having been the case ; and all observers have considered the eruptions to have been contem- 

 poraneous ; an opinion, to a certain extent, confirmed by the occurrence of the same fossils 

 in very distant localities. 



* Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii., p. 397. 

 4d 2 



