434 Geological Sketch of the Neilgherries. [Au&. 



tant qu'on n' aura pas indique d' autre chaine* qui produisse sur la 

 laterite l'effet mentionne' cidessus, tout conduit a voir dans les gates 

 la chaine la plus r^cente de la presqu'lle occidentale de 1' Inde, dont elle 

 est en raeme tems le trait georaetrique le plus prononceT' 



Then he says in a note, that the Himalaya are more recent than the 

 ghats, and the Andes more recent than the Allaghanys of America. 



We see, by what Beaumont says, that he suspects the laterite to be 

 the equivalent of those rocks deposited during the period that inter- 

 vened between the deposition of the chalk, and the tertiary beds. 

 But fossil remains being the only sure guide in determining the ages 

 of these formations, and none hitherto having been found in the 

 laterite, the question must still remain sub judice. Besides, we must 

 remark here en passant, that the rocks of that epoch in Europe are 

 all stratified, which is not the case with the laterite. 



Before concluding this sketch of the geology of the Neilgherries, 

 we must not pass unnoticed the fact of the absence of all sorts of 

 calcareous formation. Even the widely spread kankar is not met 

 with on the Neilgherries, although we find this travertinic deposit 

 at the very foot of those hills, near Mutiipolium (No. 54). 



The total absence of stratified rocks, and of calcareous formations, 

 in this group, seems an additional proof of the remote period of its 

 elevation. The only stratified rock, which appears to have been 

 deposited near the place, through which this plateau was heaved up, 

 is the hornblende slate, which is seen both on the east and on the 

 west sides of the hills, being highly inclined, and having an opposite 

 dip: the group serving as the centre of this anticlinal line. 



On looking at the map, we see how the numerous valleys and 

 ravines have a different, and often an opposite, direction. Except three 

 or four of them, which diverge in opposite directions from a central 

 point (Dodabetta), the others are so irregular, that it is impossible to 

 refer them to one and the same cause. They certainly do not belong 

 to the class of valleys of denudation, much less to that of corrosion 

 by the streams: the volume of their waters being so very insignificant 

 and divested of pebbly or sandy detritus, which so much hastens the 

 corrosion of the rock, through which the rivers pass. They probably 

 are the original consequence of the elevating force, which either irre- 



* " With regard to this part of this passage, to show that there are other 

 chains, having different direction from the Malabar ghats, on the summits of 

 which we see the laterite as an overlying rock, we may quote some of the branches 

 of the Vindiya range, where the laterite overlays either basalt or sandstone ; and 

 also many sandstone hills on the Northern Circars : and yet the Vindiya Chain has 

 a different direction from the Malabar ghats. 



