144 Mr. FuASEu's Journej/ from Delhi to Bombay. 



first mentioned is sometimes found of a more granular cliaraclcr ; but I could 

 not detect its exact junction with, or transition into, the opake sandy rock. 



The old buildings about Delhi, where strength has been the principal ob- 

 ject, are almost uniformly formed of this quartzy sandstone ; and all the old 

 Hindoo pillars, which seem to have been obtained from the destruction of some 

 temple near the place, and now form part of the Mahomedan buildings around 

 the celebrated tower called the Cootub Minar, are of the same stone : some of 

 these are now passing to decay ; assuming often, in such cases^ the appear- 

 ance of coarse grey sugar. 



Leaving the chief range of these hills at the Cootub Minarj eleven miles 

 to the south-westward of Delhi, we crossed several lower and less important 

 hills, the tops of which were flat, or rounded, and covered with masses of stone 

 of the same quartzy nature as that above described, the edges and corners 

 being worn off by gradual decomposition, till they had acquired a globular or 

 at least rounded character : scales, as it were, falling off" by effect of e.xposure 

 to the weather. These stones, as well as those at Delhi, are all more or less 

 tinged with iron ore. The hills are very scantily covered with grass and vege- 

 tation, and, except in the rains, have a black, gloomy, and barren appearance. 



Ten miles on, to the south-west, we entered on a plain alternately sandy and 

 clayey, which, lying between two ranges of hills, extends to Feerozepoor, and 

 indeed a great deal further in the same direction, about S.S.W. Neither 

 range differs nuirli in character or composition from that we had just left, 

 but they rise gradually in height : that to the left-hand takes a direction to 

 the soutlivvard of our route ; and that on the right increases in width and runs 

 between llewarrie and Mevvat, the valley, properly speaking, in which Fee- 

 rozepoor is situated and through which our route led. 



The hills immediately about this place are probably from four to six hun- 

 dred feet in height ; their tops run much upon a level, without any peak 

 aspiring above the rest, and they are only varied by the water-courses which 

 have furrowed their sides. The predominating rock is granular quartz, nearly 

 the same as that at Delhi ; and this forms apparently the whole of the tops of 

 the hills. In penetrating towards their interior, in one of the water-courses 

 (which leads in fact quite through the western range), a more slaty form of 

 (juarlz was found, occurring in great abundance in a low situation, and appa- 

 rently occupying the lower and interior part of the range. It is a sort of 

 plum-pudding stone, the cement of which is iron ore, or clay strongly tinged 

 with iron ; and it varies considerably in appearance and composition in diffe- 

 rent situations. The inclosed fragments consist of various substances, generally 

 so large tliat it was impossible to carry away a good specimen ; but I believe they 



