1833.] Mirzapir and Sagar. 481 
mations*. They are nothing but kankar somewhat more developed, 
and probably were deposited at a period when the continent was 
raised above the level of the surrounding ocean. Among the remains, 
however, from the neighbourhood of Jabalpur, which appear also 
to have come from a recent calcareous deposit, are shells which appear 
to be marine. At Tuismahi, about 30 miles north-east from Sagar, 
I had an opportunity of observing another mineral more largely de- 
veloped than I had seen it in the country to the eastward. This is 
the hydrated iron ore, which occurs in loose pieces about Bardwan 
and Bankiira, often accompanied by kankar. It is, I believe, the 
laterite of Dr. Bucnanan, and here forms the summit of the Tuismahl 
hill in a bed of many feet in thickness. For the reason why a 
deposit from springs can thus cap an isolated hill rising out of a plain, 
I must refer to M. Monttost=r’s ingenious explanation of the isolated 
peaks and platforms of basalt in Auvergne. This mineral is largely 
developed in the country to the north of Tuismahl, and is, I believe, 
the ore which is usually smelted for iron. 
We left Tuismahl in a N. W. direction, and soon came upon 
the sandstone again. It is, to be sure, occasionally to be seen 
in isolated ridges rising out of the basalt; but now this latter 
disappears, and it becomes the formation of the whole country 
round us. We find the basalt again some miles before reaching 
Issdgarh, a fortress about 50 miles north of Seronj, and it here 
shews more symptoms of a. recent formation than I have yet seen. 
The couleés are better defined ; they have evidently, in some places, 
taken the lowest ground, and their surface is yet rugged in a 
degree, but their composition is, as before, a solid basalt. We quit 
the basalt altogether at Issdgarh, and come upon the sandstone, which 
we travel upon to Pahargarh, about 30 miles west of Gwalior, where 
we descend into the plain, and find ourselves again among kankar 
banks and ravines. The sandstone remains unaltered in character. In 
the bed of the Betwa it was quartz rock. In the country round Delhi 
it is usually quartz rock, nearly perpendicular, and dipping to the 
eastward. A few miles to the south of Pahargarh I observed a pecu- 
liar appearance of the kankar. It forms a calcareous cement to a bed 
of rounded pebbles, and above this forms another bed similar to those 
which are to be seen so frequently on the banks of the Ganges. 
* There is no known force but that of an earthquake that could produce such 
effects. From Dr. Sprtspury’s account of the fossil shells he found near Jabal- 
pur, they appear to be scattered through the soil in a similar manner. 
2a 
