JOURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



On the Natural Products about the Pundeelah River, H. H. the Nizanis 

 territory. — By T>&. Walker, Madras Army. 



I marched from Pakhall on the 7th instant in a North-westerly direc- 

 tion towards Madhapore, which I reached on the 13th. I remained 

 there for five days, when I proceeded to this place, deviating from 

 the direct route by going ten miles up the Pundeelah river. 



At Dogundah, the first stage on the march from Pakhall, so deep 

 was the soil, that I experienced considerable difficulty in procuring 

 a specimen of the surface rock. Upon obtaining one, I found it to con- 

 sist of sienitic granite, with a considerable quantity of mica inter- 

 spersed. One of those greenstone veins so commonly met with, 

 was found traversing the rock in the usual direction from East to 

 West to near the next stage, Korapack. Here, in some places of 

 the plain, the granite was observed to lose its hornblende and mica 

 altogether, and become the pegmatite of French writers. The great 

 proneness of the felspar to decompose in this form of granite, is 

 shewn by the brackish water of the neighbourhood ; and here it may 

 be remarked that, within the tropics, where from the great heat and 

 other causes, there is a continual tendency to decomposition and 

 recomposition, it necessarily appears that wells sunk in rocks con- 

 taining alkali, particularly if lime is present in the soil, must ever 

 contain water more or less impure, and that the impurity will always 

 be found in a direct ratio to the facility with which the rock disinte- 

 grates. It must also follow as a consequence, that the older the well 

 No. 115. New Series, No. 31. 3 s 



