1845.] from Pondicherry to Beypoor. 777 



The strike of the stratification is generally W. 5° N., and dip 80° 

 S. 5 E. Stratification, with the help of a telescope, is seen beauti- 

 fully distinct in some of the highest bare peaks which occasionally 

 overlook the Pass;— for example, North of the hamlet of Ganjicota, 

 where the Pass opens out to the Westward. 



The sand brought down the mountain sides by rills and streamlets, 

 consists chiefly of quartz and mica, with magnetic iron sand, and oc- 

 casionally particles of gold found after heavy rains, comminuted garnet 

 and hornblende, and rusty ferruginous particles. Bits of the bronzite 

 and hyperstene varieties of hornblende are also met with in thin 

 beds. 



The surface soil, when mingled with the decayed vegetable matter 

 of the forest, forms an ash-grey coloured mould, soft and friable to the 

 touch; this is the prevailing soil. Around protruding rocky masses, 

 the usual reddish alluvium and detritus from the surrounding rocks, 

 prevails. 



The subsoil is usually a bed of angular gravel, the under fragments 

 of these rocks. Beds of clay and kunker are occasionally substituted. 



While journeying through the forest, the more than midnight silence 

 of a tropical noon was suddenly disturbed by the loud crashing of 

 the tall, dry clumps of bamboos, and underwood of the jungle in front 

 of U3, as if some infuriate elephant was advancing upon us in 

 all the frenzy of the periodical madness these animals are afflicted 

 with. Raising our eyes in haste, we beheld a tall white column of 

 dust madly gyrating here and there, high above the highest trees 

 of the forest, whirling about fragments of sticks and leaves, the wreck 

 of the bamboo clumps in which its lower extremity was performing 

 most destructive gambols. 



After crashing about for some time, its lower half, like that of a 



water spout, separated from the upper or more celestial portion, — 



which curling upwards gathered itself into a canopy, or cloud above 



our heads, from which dropped the heavier particles it had whirled 



into mid-air; then gradually dissolving it vanished, leaving the forest 



to its former death-like stillness, after a temporary disturbance of three 



minutes. 



d * 



