304 On the formations of the 



and the softest are nearest to the surface. The position 

 of the beds is in the utmost confusion, sometimes vertical 

 and sometimes horizontal. The dip is in all directions, and 

 I have never been able to observe with certainty any general 

 direction. At Salem and at Seringapatam, I have observed 

 the beds to dip generally to the South East, by which the 

 edges at the surface appear to have a N. E. and S. W. 

 direction ; but it is seldom good sections of the strata can be 

 found. The beds may perhaps have been deposited in their 

 present form, and disturbed by disruptive forces; yet the 

 contorted strata and tortuous veins of quartz, as also the 

 various beds of quartz could scarcely have been so produced, 

 and it will also be seen, that many of the alternating beds are 

 formed of rocks generally allowed to be of igneous origin. 



In describing the granitic formation, I have remarked 

 that the schistose series shew no signs of disturbance, by 

 which was intended that they shew no signs of a general dis- 

 turbance or elevation, such as would have resulted from a 

 forcible elevation of the granite beneath them. The contor- 

 tions and intersecting veins I do not consider as the effects 

 of disturbing agencies, but as original in the formation 

 itself. 



Dykes of trap are common in this formation ; they are al- 

 ways vertical, and never branch off into veins. The trap 

 agrees exactly in character with that in the dykes described 

 by Lieut. Baird Smith, (Madras Journal, vol. ix. page 287,) 

 in what he has called, in common with Dr. Benza, the sienite 

 of Amboor, i. e. the Euritic granite, the characters of which 

 I have before defined. 



The direction of these dykes is generally North and South, 

 although they sometimes take other directions. They are sel- 

 dom more than 12 feet wide, and the character of the rock 

 changes in the same dyke sometimes through all the varieties 

 of trap to hornblende rock, and to basaltic hornblende ; but 

 never to basalt unless near granite. 



