88 PERSONAL NARBATIFE. 



twenty feet wide in most places, and thorouglily cleared, 

 but excessively steep in parts — a wonderful record of the 

 man's perseverance and intelligence, though not of his 

 engineering skill. The section exposed by the road 

 gave an excellent idea of the rocks. The majority are 

 basaltic ; a little columnar trachyte occurs near the 

 summit north of the ravine, and on the south side, just 

 below the top of the scarp, the following beds occur in 

 descending order : — 



1. Compact basalt. 



2. White argillaceous rock of sedimentary origin, 



twenty to twenty-five feet thick. 



3. Volcanic ash and basalt. 



4. Coarse brown sandstone, fifty to sixty feet. 



5. Trachyte with crystals of glassy felspar. 



6. Basalt. 



The sedimentary beds can be traced by the eye for a 

 short distance along the scarp, the sandstone being very 

 conspicuous, but they have evidently no great extension, 

 as they do not recur on the north side of the ravine. 

 Below the above, about half-way down to the river, sume 

 black shales are interstratified in the traps. I could 

 find no organic remains, but fossil wood is said to have 

 been met with here. 



The road from the Jitta to the Bashilo crosses a portion 

 of the Dalanta plateati, which is even flatter than the 

 Wadela, and consists, like the southern portion of the 

 latter, of basaltic rock covered with black soil, and 

 mostly cultivated. After traversing this for about six 



