1850.] in Southern and Central India. 281 



presents a regular but rather precipitous slope ; whilst its southern 

 one is irregular and almost perpendicular to the upper half. 



Wednesday ; \Ath Jidy, 1819. — I ascended the singular hill men- 

 tioned on the other side. The difficulty was very great, and I do not 

 think I should have been able to have descended without the assistance 

 of my bearer. Every haunt of banditti that I have ever read of, falls 

 short of the comparison with this singular place. One man well sup- 

 plied with provisions might easily defend himself against as many as 

 could be sent against him. The passes are so numerous and the rock is 

 so perpendicular, that it would be impossible to watch the one or scale 

 the other. In one place a stone ready placed to close the orifice, would 

 completly bar all farther progress. My guide informed me that it 

 was formerly a haunt of very powerful banditti, and we saw on our 

 arrival at the top, bricks, mortar, and in a crevice of the rock an inclo- 

 sure forming a spacious apartment. The rock is entirely granite, of 

 the same constituents as those of the rock beneath, containing rather 

 less mica and with veins of quartz and felspar ; on the pinnacle I observed 

 in numerous shallow places containing rain water, tadpoles and other 

 reptiles, for whose existence in such a place I am at a loss to 

 account. 



Sunday t \%th July, 1819. — I observed on the road numerous flat- 

 tened masses of granite containing micaceous granite similar to that 

 at Mundrick ; sometimes very much intermixed with it, giving it a 

 veiny appearance, at others rounded, presenting the same appearance as 

 that before noticed ; none rose far above the surface, the whole closely 

 resembled that of Bachapilly containing small portions of carbonate of 

 lime, the hornblende being a little darker in colour, large and small 

 veins of the trap as usual and nearly in the usual direction. 



Monday, \§th July, 1819. — We crossed the Mussey this day. I 

 found in its bed shells resembling those found in the silicious stone of 

 Medcondah. The river was not three feet deep, and its bed was com- 

 posed solely of granite sand. 



Tuesday, 20th July, 1819. — I this morning ascended the hill of 

 Udirgutt with Everest. The granite blocks of which it is composed 

 resemble principally the Bachapilly kind, containing pieces of hornblende, 

 which are seen in four or five places of a mass about 3 feet in diameter. 

 I found crystals of quartz in abundance in an alluvial soil washed down 



