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



had apparently escaped in a semifluid state between the joints of the larger 

 tableSj carrying with it fragments of the sandstone, whose angles are so well 

 defined, that I thought I could trace the very spot from which they had been 

 broken off. Notwithstanding these appearances, the character of the rock 

 differed so much from any varieties of basalt I had then seen in India, that I 

 hesitated about referring it to the trap family, till I had seen varieties of a 

 red wacke much resembling it, constituting part of the basaltic mountains 

 of the island of Salsette. It is in a substance of this kind, interstratified with 

 sandstone, that Tavernier describes the diamond mines of Beejapoor to have 

 been worked in former times. The transitory nature of the political divisions 

 of this part of India, and the decay or desertion of many towns and villages, 

 have hitherto prevented the identification of these mines; but enough has been 

 said to show the importance of caution in reasoning on individual facts, rela- 

 tive to one of the most singular and extensive formations anywhere to be 

 found. 



Note. 



The freshwater shells described in the preceding pages, must have inha- 

 bited sheets of fresh water of which no traces can now be discovered, in the 

 configuration of the mountainous tracts, in which they for the most part occur. 

 No natural lakes exist in these districts, nor could shells have accumulated 

 in such quantity in rivers similar to those which now intersect the country. It 

 may, however, be supposed that the sandstone and limestone rocks of Berar 

 had once a position similar to that which the same rocks now occupy in the 

 basins of the Kistnah and Pennar. Voysey describes these rivers as passing- 

 through the Nulla-Mulla range by gaps or fissures " which have been pro- 

 '' duced by some great convulsion, which at the same time that it formed the 

 " beds of these rivers, gave passage to the accumulated waters of some vast 

 " lakes situated near the outlets." " The tortuous course of the Kistnah is 

 " bounded for upwards of 70 miles by lofty and precipitous banks, which in 

 " some places rise 1000 feet above its level, the opposite sides of the chasm 

 " corresponding in an exact manner. Ravines of this description are not un- 

 " frequent all over the range, and the exact correspondence of their salient 

 " and re-entering angles, together with the abruptness of their origin, totally 

 " preclude the supposition of their being hollowed out by the action of 

 "running water*." Such seems also to have been the case, where the 

 Pennar passes through a narrow gorge in the Gundicottah sandstone hills. 

 Through the upper part of its course, this river flows over a fiat country co- 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. xv., p. 123, 124. 



