1835.] Geological Sketch of the Neilgherries. 433 



ghats of which the Neilgherries are the southern termination, hap- 

 pened at a period long anterior to the existence of life on our planet. 

 It is for this reason that I think Humboldt's opinion not supported 

 by facts, when he says, " the chain of the Ural, the Baloor tag, the 

 ghats of the Malabar Coast, and the Vringckan are probably more 

 modern than the " Chains of the Himalaya, and the Teenckan*. We 

 know, that in the Himalaya, at several thousand feet elevation, and on 

 the declivities of the highest ridges themselves, organic remains have 

 been found in limestone, which seems of the age of the carboniferous 

 group. 



The nummulitic limestone of Chira Punji, and the conglomerate 

 rock, which forms the Deria Dun at the foot of the Himalaya, appear 

 to assimilate those mountains to the Alpsf. Therefore the Himalaya 

 must have been heaved up at a period posterior to that when the 

 Western ghats were elevated : these last containing not a trace of 

 organic remains in the rocks which form them, while the former 

 abound in them. 



Elie de Beaumont admits the greater antiquity of the Malabar 

 ghats over the Himalaya chain ; but he conjectures, by the direction 

 of the ghats being parallel to the Pyrenese-Appenin system, that 

 they may probably belong to his sixth revolution of the surface of 

 the globe. The passage, in which he expresses this perplexity, is 

 worth transcribing, to show of what importance it is to establish the 

 association, and the geological position of the laterite. 



" Vouloir suivre ce systeme jusque dans 1' Inde paraitraitpeut-etre 

 abuser de la faculte des rapprochemens : cependant je crois devoir 

 faire remarquer que la chaine des gates sur la cote du Malabar semble 

 se cohordonner a la direction, dont je m' occupe. La grande faille, a 

 laquelle parait du l'escarpement occidental des gates, en elevant le 

 plateau du pays des Maharattes, du Deccan, du Carnatic a eleve" du 

 meme terns, le grand depot argille-ferrugineux de laterite, qui forme 

 les points plus eleves de ce plateau, ainsi que le montre la coupe des 

 gates donnee par M. Christie. II est a regretter que ce depot de la- 

 terite, qui couvre dansl' Inde de si vastes Vendues, n'aie, jusqu'a pre- 

 sent, offert aucun fossile, et ne puisse etre rapporte avec certitude a. 

 aucun etage geologique determine" : mais on peut toujours remarquer que 



* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, October to January, 1832, Humboldt on 

 the Mountain Chains — Volcanos of Central Asia. 



T A writer in the Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles, concludes that the Dehra 

 Dun is analogous in formation to the Molasse of the Alps ; and Doctor Falconer 

 is of the same opinion. — De la Beche, Geological Manual. 



