1845.] Diluvial and Wave Translation Theories. 227 



ported block ; however, wherever we find gneiss in Southern India, the 

 granite is never far distant. 



Dr. Benza is inclined to consider the blocks of granite seen scattered 

 on the table-land of Mysore about Golcondapatnam, from the confused 

 nature of their arrangements and the circumstance of no hills of any 

 magnitude being apparent, as erratic boulders : but those which I 

 examined in this locality proved to be out-croppings of granitic veins or 

 dykes in the gneiss which bases this plain, deserted by the softer and 

 more easily weathered imbedding schist. Granite and greenstone are 

 abundant in the surrounding country ; and even when not apparent, 

 its existence must always be suspected in the hypogene areas of 

 Southern India. It must also be borne in mind, if ever granite blocks 

 are found at great distances from the rock whence they were derived, 

 that the surface of India, like that of other countries, has been sub- 

 jected to waves of translation caused by elevation to the surface. 



Insulated blocks, knobs, clusters of granite, like those in the gneiss 

 and granite plains of Hydrabad, Mysore and the Carnatic, have never 

 been observed on the surface of the extensive diamond limestone and 

 sandstone patches of Cuddapah, Kurnool and the South Mahratta 

 country : — and only one small fragment of the former rock on the gra- 

 nitic and hypogene areas, at the base of the Neilgherries by Dr. Ben- 

 za, which alone cannot be pronounced with any certainty as a true 

 boulder, or transported pebble, as it may have been dropped from the 

 collection of a traveller. 



It will be proper to observe, that the Hindus like the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, in the construction of their temples and statues, manifest a parti- 

 ality for granite and basalt ; blocks of which they will convey to great 

 distances, if quarries should not happen to be at hand. I have seen 

 a pagoda entirely built of granite amid the Moslem ruins of Bijapore, 

 which is situated on a plain of the overlying trap 16 or 17 miles from 

 the nearest granite rocks. 



The Egyptians, who had the advantage of easy water carriage, 

 transported enormous blocks of granite from the quarries of Syene to 

 Lower Egypt. In the desert, as in the jungles of India, are fre- 

 quently seen fragments of this rock scattered on the sands— the only 

 remaining vestiges of former structures, and many miles distant from 

 the parent rocks. 



2 K 



