On the Red Marl Formation of Mysore. 41 



stead of these rocks if we imagine these to be granite, the 

 description closely applies, for such is exactly the appear- 

 ance of the gently waving plain north of Bangalore. 



Brande further remarks, " The texture of the new red 

 sandstone, I had almost said its colours, are very various; 

 sometimes it is soft and clayey, but in parts it is much more 

 lapideous and indurated, and is associated with beds of a 

 peculiar conglomerate consisting of nodules of different 

 substances cemented by marl or sand ;" this applies equally 

 to the red marl of Mysore ; and Macculloch and other writers 

 mention the occurrence of mottled or variegated portions 

 both in the old and the superior sandstones, composed of 

 intercomingled red and white. Portions answering this des- 

 cription may be seen also near Bangalore at the Belfry, 

 where a low mound or rise of some extent is composed of 

 red lithomargic earth mottled with white kaolin. 



These coincidences are too vague to draw any conclusion 

 from, but they are certainly very curious, and naturally lead 

 to the inquiry, whether any sufficient evidence can be found 

 to imagine any similarity between this formation and the 

 older beds of England.* The principal points I have des- 

 cribed will I think forbid this, and my own inference is, that 

 the formation is cotemporaneous with the subjacent granite. 



I have remarked that the depth is in many situations very 

 great, but there are, I think, evidences that it has been 

 at one time much greater, for Nundydroog, and the principal 

 hills will be found capped with the same red marl, answer* 



* To establish an identity between this formation and the red marl 

 of English geologists, every thing is required. The red marl rests on 

 the coal formation, and supports the oolitic and cretaceous groups. 

 In order to make out the identity, it would be necessary to suppose 

 the whole of these formations to be absent, with the exception of this 

 isolated bed alone, which would require to present very unequivocal 

 proofs indeed of identity with the red marl, before we could regard that 

 fact to be established, or even probable. — Ed. Cal. Journ. Nat. Hist. 



G 



