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Notes illustrative of the Geology of Southern India. — By 

 Lieutenant R. Baird Smith, Bengal Engineers. 



The universal prevalence of primary rocks, with the ge- 

 neral quiescence of the agents of active reproduction tend 

 to give a degree of monotony to the geology of Southern 

 India, and to deprive it of that interest which naturally 

 attaches to activity and variety. The features of its hills 

 and its vallies alike exhibit indications of the long continued 

 reign of the decomposing and abreading powers of the 

 natural world. The fantastic turret-like peaks, the results 

 of the unequal disentegration of the granitic masses of 

 which they are composed, so frequently crowning the sum- 

 mits of the one, are the trophies of ages of resistance on 

 their part to atmospheric encroachments, while the boulder- 

 like masses and crumbling deposits met with in the other, 

 tell the same tale of long resisted but yet resistless power. 

 But amid these signs of decay we see nothing of those 

 active reproductive agencies which so abundantly charac- 

 terise more diversified regions. No great rivers are seen 

 bearing on their waters the fragments of one continent to 

 re-create or increase another ; no inland lakes or seas are 

 gradually passing away from the face of the earth, year by 

 year perceptibly approaching the time when fruitful fields 

 will replace their " waste of waters," and when their solitude 

 and silence will yield to the glad voices of the labourers 

 rejoicing in the luxuriance of these new born lands. 



Equally quiescent are all ignious agents, for no volcanoes 

 are here in active operation, and the existence of subterranean 

 forces is only occasionally indicated by slight tremblings of 

 the earth within very limited districts. Yet even with this 

 monotony the geology of Southern India is not devoid of 

 interest, since its very peculiarity in having been so long free 

 from any powerful disturbing agents, either aqueous or 

 igneous, has admitted of the full display of those phenomena 

 which result from the unchecked sway of the decomposing 



