1838.] Section of a Hill in Cuttack. 155 



Note.— By Dr. McClelland. 



The hill of Newraj described by Mr. Kittoe in the accompanying 

 letter, is situated seven miles in a direct line due west of Cuttack near 

 the confluence of the Kutjooree with the Mahdnadi at the exit of the 

 latter from the hills ; and appears from an examination of the small but 

 interesting collection of specimens procured by Mr. Kittoe to be, as he 

 has accurately described it, volcanic. 



The centre of the hill is formed of a massive dyke (2,) thrown up 

 from below, and consisting of a dark green trachyte of a somewhat 

 coarse glossy character with minute vesicles containing a soft earthy 

 matter, which is removed by exposure (6.) The lower portion of this 

 rock (3), where it is exposed to the action of air and moisture, decays 

 like green-stone, yielding a similar clay. 



On one side of the dyke there is an abrupt abutment of sandstone 

 (16), which forms an extensive undulating country on the west, south 

 and north of Newraj ; and on the other side a bed of drawing slate 

 changing into yellow (7,) brown (8,) red (9,) and black chalks (10, 10, 

 10,) which might be used with advantage in the manufacture of paints 

 and pencils. Mr. Kittoe indeed states, that the black drawing slate is 

 exported to Pooree for the purpose of making the tillak, or frontal 

 mark of the Hindus, and that the other kinds are used in the neigh- 

 bourhood by the natives for painting their houses. I do not think that 

 these chalks are at all inferior (especially the black) to the best kinds 

 imported to England. 



The annexed copy of Mr. Kittoe's sketch of the section of Newraj 

 hill, I have made by using one of his rough geological specimens of 

 black chalk instead of a pencil. 



Between this last bed and the dyke, there is a true vein filled up ap- 

 parently from above by scaly fragments of drawing slate and calcare- 

 ous matter (5) ; this rent has evidently been formed in the centre of the 

 hill by the elevation of the dyke from below, and some distance from 

 this the slate is divided by a vein of a different nature (13) from the 

 last, occasioned by the separation of the lower convex surface of the 

 disturbed mass ; this vein is composed of fragments of primary clay slate 

 mechanically intermixed with plates of silvery mica, ingredients which 

 must have been derived from below. 



Another interesting peculiarity, and one for which it is more difficult 

 to account in this section, is a vein of black glossy trachyte, extended 

 obliquely from the drawing slate at the water's edge across the great dyke, 

 dividing it nearly in a horizontal direction. 



