Mr. Eraser's Journey from Delhi to Bombay/. 147 



limestone of a light greyish hue, taken from the vicinity of the town : there 

 is none however, we were informed, very near it, of a texture sufficiently fine 

 to be used as marble : — that in most common use, which is taken from twenty 

 to thirty miles to the westward, is grey, veined with a darker shade. All the 

 white marble is brought from Mukrana, a place about thirty or forty miles 

 north or north-west from Ajmere, which is remarkable all over this part of 

 India for its fine marble : the gmin however vv'ould be considered as very 

 coarse in Europe, and for statuary it would not at all answer. 



Leaving Jaypoor and proceeding in a west-south-west direction, towards Aj- 

 mere, the hills, at the foot of which the former is situated, bend to the north- 

 west; and the road passes for the first thirty miles through a sandy and uneven 

 country, with water at no great depth from the surface. A few insulated hills 

 appear on the right ; and a range to the left is barely in view in the distance. 

 For the remainder of the way to Kishenguhr, a distance of forty miles at 

 the least, the country becomes clayey, with occasional gravel ; the rocks, how- 

 ever, in some places rise to the surface, thus proving the continuity of the 

 same substances beneath. They consist of gneiss and granite, the latter ap- 

 proaching to the graphic character, and apparently disposed in strata, which 

 dip at a small angle to the horizon. Both rocks, at the surface, are in a 

 state of decomposition, and gravel and sand of the same nature are abundant 

 all around. 



Kishenguhr is situated at the foot of a range of hills, which stretch towards 

 the north, and probably join those of Jaypoor, which have been mentioned as 

 deflecting to the north-west. There cannot be much doubt of their connexion 

 beneath the surface, as their components and structure are perfectly similar : 

 but they differ considerably in appearance, from the Jaypoor hills, assuming 

 far more commanding and picturesque forms, and rising into lofty peaks or 

 separating into bold masses ; and this character they retain both at Ajmere 

 and in the ranges that run to the southward. The valley through which the 

 road to Ajmere lies, is of uneven surface, and various in its soil; and small 

 dentated hills here and there rear themselves above its general level. 



About Ajmere, the hills are much more lofty and magnificent than any our 

 march had yet led through ; and there is a wildness and disorder in their form 

 and outline which are particularly striking. The fort of Farraguhr is built on 

 a hill, which cannot, I think, be less than 1200 feet high : it is probably the 

 loftiest in this part of the range. Granite, gneiss, and quartz rock were ob- 

 served to prevail chiefly in this part of the country ; the last differing little, if 

 at aU, from that found in the vicinity of Delhi, and like it constituting the tops 



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