1844.] from Masulipatam to Goa. 993 



Beder and 1^ mile from the village of Hulfergah, on the left of the 

 road leading down from the table land into the plain, the laterite is 

 seen penetrated by a great number of veins, which at first sight, 

 from their dark aspect and singular direction, might be taken for those 

 of basalt. They are composed of black, often earthy manganese, com- 

 bined with iron. The veins are extremely tortuous, and crossing 

 each other in every direction, and give a reticulated appearance to the 

 rock. On the sides of these veins the laterite is so hard as to stand 

 out in relief from the weathered portions of the rock. The veins are 

 usually thicker near the bottom of the cliff, fining off as they ascend 

 until they are gradually lost in the substance of the laterite : others are 

 horizontal. As they diminish from an inch to a line in thickness, 

 they gradually lose the deep bluish black colour, becoming mixed witL 

 the matter of the matrix, and pass into a brown, yellowish brown, and 

 lastly, a purplish thread which is lost in the substance of the rock. 



The bluish black substance of the veins is compact and hard, in some 

 parts ; sectile and earthy in others, easily frangible. Before the blow 

 pipe, per se, it is converted into a black slag affected by the magnet ; 

 with borax it fuses into a bead of amethyst coloured glass. 



The indurated sides of the veins are of a mottled reddish grey colour, 

 resembling indurated lithomarge : portions of the greyish-white clay in 

 their vicinity acquire an almost vitreous hardness and a cellular fritty 

 aspect, a dull greenish enamel lines most of the cavities in the laterite : 

 the lithomarge is slightly indurated. The fritty parts of the rock exhi- 

 bit traces of calcareous infiltration. The greyish white clay fuses into 

 a greenish enamel similar to that lining the cavities. The pure litho- 

 marge undergoes little alteration, before the blow pipe ; does not fuse 

 but becomes indurated, darker and more mottled. The impure varie- 

 ties exhibit in the reducing flame, minute greenish globules. 



The lithomarge, and the greyish white, and coloured clays, all emit air 

 bubbles, when placed in water, they also slightly decrepitate but do not 

 fall to pieces ; with water they form a plastic clay. The purer varieties 

 of lithomarge are little adhesive, feel meagre ; the streak and fracture is 

 earthy : that of the white clays shining, feel slightly greasy to the touch. 



It must not remain unnoticed that near at the base of the laterite 

 cliff, in which the maganese veins just described occur, runs a dyke of 

 compact and exceedingly tough basalt, occupying the space of a few 



