Table Lands of South India. 307 



the bases of the hills, nor rise in that situation in any degree 

 above the general level ; and also, the primary schists have 

 always been referred to aqueous origin. Phillips, in his 

 gneiss and mica slate system, insists upon the visible water- 

 worn appearance of the debris of which they are formed, 

 while in the Indian rocks nothing of the kind can be found, 

 and on the contrary, all the crystalline portions are formed of 

 particularly sharp and well-defined angular parts. 



With the porphyritic series of primary schists of Dr. Boase 

 in Cornwall, we cannot identify this formation; because the 

 Cornish formation is characterized by argillaceous schists 

 and similar allied rocks. 



The general level surface of this formation, and its situa- 

 tion in the bottoms of the hollows between the ranges of 

 granite hills, naturally suggests the idea of its having origi- 

 nated in the depositions, as a sediment from the detritus of 

 older rocks ; but it is impossible that the contorted and con- 

 voluted beds and intersecting veins can have been so formed. 



That the formation may be a series of sedimentary deposits, 

 subsequently altered or metamorphised by the action of heat 

 is certainly possible, and the insulated beds of trap and dimi- 

 nishing tortuous veins may be accounted for in the same 

 manner; but to this theory objections may be found in 

 the rhomboidal forms which are assumed by some of the 

 trap rocks, with the seams between them both horizontal 

 and vertical filled with kunkur, and in other points also ; but 

 besides, if a graduation between this formation and the gra- 

 nite is proved to exist, the same origin must be allowed for 

 both. 



That the graduation between the schistose and the gra- 

 nitic formation does exist, I think is probable for several 

 reasons : because in some localities a perfect graduation 

 between portions of gneiss and the granite can be distinctly 

 seen : because in the granite under the Mysore red marie 

 formation, it may be distinctly seen that the direction of the 



