158 Mr. Fraser's Journey from Delhi to Bomhar. 



mountains. The highest peak of the latter is about 2500 feet above the sea, 

 and consists of amygdaloid^ green stone, — which seems to form more than 

 one-half of the entire hill, — and at the top of basalt. 



From this place to our entrance into Candeish, by the Sindvvah-ghat, there 

 seems nothing to remark : the route lay through a poor jungle, clothing scan- 

 tily a succession of low barren hills^ the dark rock every where starting through 

 the surface. 



Candeish is a singularly situated country ; a low district surrounded on 

 every side by higher lands ; so that from every direction there is a descent 

 into it : but this descent has probably been overrated, as the great though 

 gradual ascent from other quarters to the passes which lead into Candeish, 

 has not been taken into due consideration. 



The soil of Candeish differs from that of Nemaur and Malwa; a fine rich 

 chocolate-coloured mould taking the place of the black, deep, gaping soil 

 of those places : there is here, it is true, much sand, and much hard un- 

 kindly soil of gravel and kunker; but many of the chief districts might be again 

 rendered, as they once were, extremely fruitful. 



The heights, known as the Inyadree hills, which separate Candeish from 

 the district called the Gungleteree, present a very extraordinary aspect, and 

 afford a singular specimen of the fantastic shapes which rocks of the trap 

 formation assume. They rise to a certain height in a continuous range, 

 marked at intervals by the strata of which they are composed ; a distinct hori- 

 zontal line runs along the whole ; and the various masses that form the indivi- 

 dual hills rising above this line, as from a base, at some distance from each 

 other, attain the height of a few hundred feet more, traversed by other hori- 

 zontal lines at still more elevated points. Some of the heights terminate, after 

 one or more such stages, in a level table-land ; others rise still higher, but 

 on a reduced scale, so as to leave unoccupied a part of the subjacent table : 

 and this succession is several times repeated, till the mountain ends in an in- 

 sulated columnar mass. The outline, Plate XXIV. fig. 2. will perhaps give 

 a clearer idea of this structure than any description. 



Our route lay through the ghats near Candeish, Chandoor, and the district of 

 Gungleteree, to Nassuck, and thence down the ghats, and through the northern 

 Concan to Bombay. It exhibited only a repetition of the same mineral and geo- 

 logical phenomena of which a description has been attempted: but the rapidity 

 with which we passed did not allow of any minute or laborious investigation. 



The singular forms of the hills which bound the table-lands of India at this 

 point, and are known by the name of The Ghats, have been the theme of every 

 traveller : but though ever varying, they may generally be referred to the 



