22 The Means of Transit in India. [Jan., 



that the detached knolls of basalt scattered over the country, and 

 resting upon the sandstone rocks which there predominate, are 

 remnants of some great overflow of molten materials which 

 covered the country, when the now elevated peaks constituted its 

 lowest level, and when in all probability the entire district lay 

 submerged under the ocean. We are therefore only obliged to 

 transfer to Yulcan the task which the renowned geologist of 

 Freyburg attributed to Neptune, and to conceive that a flood of 

 melted matter discharged from his subterranean workshop over- 

 spread the district, instead of the deluge of water which, according 

 to Werner, had risen to the summit of the highest hills, and which 

 had left behind it on its retreat those flcetz-trap rocks which he 

 insisted upon referring to an aqueous origin. 



It would appear then, that the conclusion at which I arrived 

 in my previous memoir is in no respect invalidated by anything 

 observed at or about Montbrison, and that we are still at a loss for 

 any facts tending to show, that the lively picture drawn by Sidonius 

 " of the earthquakes which demolished .the walls of Vienne, of the 

 mountains opening and sending forth torrents of inflamed materials, 

 and of the wild beasts driven from the woods by terror and hunger, 

 retreating into and making great ravages within the towns," is to 

 be regarded in any other light than as the offspring of a hvely 

 imagination, dwelling upon reports which had reached the author 

 with respect to some fearful earthquake which may have occurred 

 in the neighbourhood of Yienne. 



III. THE MEANS OF TEANSIT IN INDIA. 



1. Steam Navigation in British India. By G. A. Prinsep, Esq., 



Calcutta, 1830. 



2. First Report of the Public Works Commissioners, Madras, 



1852. 



3. Statement showing the Number of Miles of new Roads or Navi- 

 gable Canals opened for Traffic in each several Presidency of 

 India, since the year 1848. Printed Parliamentary Paper, 

 No. 92 of 1859. 



4. Reports to the Secretary of State for India in Council on Rail- 



ivays in India for the years 1859 to 1865-66, inclusive. By 

 Juland Danvers, Esq. 



5. Statement of the Moral and Material Progress of India, 1864-65. 



Printed Parliamentary Paper No. 374 of 1866. 



When India first came into the possession of the East India Com- 

 pany there was scarcely, throughout the whole empire, one complete 



