404 Geology of Bundelcund and Jubbulpore . [No. 125. 



small elevation would be formed. The granite would then only break 

 through the superincumbent strata, without carrying any part of them 

 along with it, while the broken strata would rest on the sides of the 

 mass after the impelling force ceased to act. The figure of the hill, 

 then, would not be a pyramid which it now resembles, but would ap- 

 proach more to that of a core ; sandstone, trap, &c. lying on, and sur- 

 rounding the granite and filling up its inequalities, and the direction 

 of the strata of each of these deviating, more or less, from the horizontal 

 line in proportion to the elevation of the central mass. 



We could thus picture to ourselves a hill more extensive than any of 

 those now existing in the first series, the sides of which were composed 

 of sandstone ledges, and the summit of a pointed block first, or mass of 

 granite, or crowning the whole, may have been a table of comparatively 

 small dimensions. Their original height in this case, may have been 

 from thirty to fifty feet greater than their present, that being the aver- 

 age of the sandstone strata on the hills in advance. The process of re- 

 duction or diminution of bulk may be conceived to have taken place 

 in the following manner. The sloping sandstone being acted upon 

 by the elements of air and water, joined to the heat of the sun, had 

 first undergone disintegration. The sand thus produced, would be 

 washed down by the torrents in the rains to the base of the hill, and 

 there spread out and form soil. This operation being continued, in 

 course of time the whole of the inclined sandstone would be removed, 

 and the trap or other rock immediately beneath it, come to be exposed 

 in its turn. From the same cause which acted on the sandstone, this 

 would also undergo a change, and ultimately be reduced to soil, cover- 

 ing the detritus of the former as it was deposited. The small table on the 

 summit, in the course of these operations falling into fragments and roll- 

 ing down the hill, would be exposed to the same successive changes as 

 the sloping strata, and thus after the lapse of ages, nothing remain but 

 the central primitive granitic mass as it is now displayed, forming, to 

 use an anatomical illustration, the skeleton of a body which once ex- 

 isted. Both the ranges then, (the peaked, or primitive hills, and the 

 tabular,) have been produced by similar causes, and at one time have 

 been composed of similar materials, the only difference arising from 

 the size of the primitive or granitic base. The sandstone so often 

 mentioned, and the ferruginous gravel lying over it, are of very fre- 



