1833.] Mirzapir and Sagar. 479 
confined to the water-courses and lowest grounds, but extending over 
the highest ridges. Near Patteria, the bank of the Sonar shewed a 
section of a bed of pebbles several feet thick, containing fragments of 
shells of the genera cyclas, paludina, and unio. At Usldma I obsery- 
ed a curious appearance, which would lead to the inference that kankar 
nodules and the soil in which they are imbedded were deposited on the 
sandstone at a time when the latter was in a state very different from 
what it is at present, viz. soft and flexible. At first sight it appeared 
that the kunkar and soil were interstratified with the upper layers of 
sandstone; but on looking further it seemed that both had come in 
from above through a fissure in the rock, and that the layers at the 
edge of this fissure had been bent downwards, as if by the superin- 
B 
cumbent weight. Thus GW A Se layers of sandstone. 
WW, iy iy Wu, B, kaukar and soil. 
Now no pressure however applied is sufficient to bend a layer of sand- 
stone in its present state. In the ruined palace of Axsar at Fatteh- 
pur Sikri, many slabs of sandstone that have formed parts of the roof 
of the building may be seen broken asunder from long-continued pres- 
sure, but none of them, though there are many entire, are in the 
slightest degree bent. 
Ata short distance beyond Patteria the road passes over a white 
earthy limestone rock, containing sandstone gravel imbedded. This, 
in some places, loses all massive appearances, and becomes a collection 
of nodules not differing from kankar. They are however more white 
and earthy, approaching to the nature of chalk, than I have met with 
in the country to the eastward. As we advance, the peculiar outlines 
of basalt present themselves in the country round. The road soon 
crosses what has apparently been a stream or coulée, and has taken 
the lowest ground. It is dark-coloured, nearly black, and considerably 
cellular on the outside; yet this is an effect only produced by weather- 
ing; within, it is a solid hard basalt, of great specific gravity, and 
containing olivine imbedded. The surface of the soil in the country 
round is strewed with large round balls, resembling the volcanic bombs 
of volcanic districts: but they too, although scoriaceous on the out- 
side, are, within, a solid basalt. With these are found abundance of 
agate and chalcedony. - These appearances continue all the way to 
Sdgar, and the rock does not differ in character, except that it some- 
times becomes of a lighter colour, and is then in a high state of de- 
composition, crumbling under the hand. Three or four miles before 
reaching Sugar, where the road had been cut through the rock, a 
