1845.] Notes on the South Mahratta Country, fyc. 281 



The table-land to the S. of the falls is covered with low jungle of 

 Mimosa, Euphorbia, Cassia and Bunder, the Mend bundati with its lilac 

 sweet pea-like blossom, the Carissa spinarum, Webera tetrandra and 

 other thorny shrubs. The Euphorbia antiqua and tortilis were in 

 flower, (July). 



Tract between Gokauk and Belgaum, along the Western slope of the 

 Ghauts. From the falls of Gokauk by Padshahpoor to the cantom- 

 ment of Belgaum, about 34J miles, the route lies nearly S. W. across 

 an elevated table-land sloping gently to the eastward, covered with 

 alternating bands of red and black soil, generally well cultivated, and 

 intersected from Padshahpoor, which is about 11^ miles from the 

 falls, to Belgaum by curvilinear spurs and outlying hills, belonging 

 to the Western Ghaut system, consisting of sandstone and sandstone 

 conglomerates as at Gokauk, in nearly horizontal strata. The ruins 

 of the fort at Padshahpoor stand on a low flat-topped hill of this sand- 

 stone. This formation has been covered in two localities by the overly- 

 ing trap. A little beyond the village of Kunnoor, about two miles from 

 the falls, a narrow coulee of trap is crossed, containing olivine and dark 

 glassy crystals of felspar. 



About a mile to the N. E. of Belgaum, another sheet of trap is 

 entered on, which extends to the sandstone ranges on the right. The 

 sandstone is now finally lost sight of on the line of route, and the trap 

 continues the surface rock to Belgaum, where it is covered by a 

 thick bed of laterite, over which is in some places superimposed a 

 layer of the more recent lateritic conglomerate. 



Sections of these rocks are afforded by the quarries near the old 

 European Barracks, none of which have been excavated to the subjacent 

 trap. It has however been dug down to in some of the deepest wells of 

 the place. The laterite is used here as at Malacca, Goa, and on the 

 Malabar coast, as a building stone. 



The trap in the vicinity of Belgaum rises into hills with rounded 

 summits, covered in general with a dark, spongy mould, which is boggy 

 during the monsoon, the grassy and almost treeless surface of which 

 affords a strong contrast to the jungle-covered hills of sandstone to the 

 N. W. The trap hills are rarely flat- topped, or in horizontal ranges, 



