1851.] Notes upon a tour through the lidjmahal Hills. 577 



The agate balls are of all sizes, some only a few ounces in weight, 

 whilst others weigh several hundred pounds. 



At the village of Khurwa and underlying this bed of agates is a 

 bed of waeke enclosing small balls of chalcedony and stilbite ; the 

 wacke passes into a very beautiful clinkstone, of a homogenous tex- 

 ture of a pale salmon or dove colour, rings under the hammer, is easily 

 broken, and fracture highly conchoidal ; it is found in large slabs six and 

 eight feet in length, also in small parallelograms and wedge-like 

 splinters. If this stone could be found in any quantity it would be a 

 highly valuable discovery, as from its natural fracture or stratification, 

 the stone would be highly prized for many domestic purposes. 



A quantity of this stone was taken a few years ago to Bhaugalpur 

 for the purpose of ornamenting a tank, but at a fearful sacrifice of 

 bullock life ; many of which animals belonging to the Sonthals perish- 

 ed from being overloaded ; the Sonthals have a bitter recollection of 

 the transaction, as they say they were never remunerated for the loss 

 of their cattle. 



25th January, 1851. — Went on an elephant with Mr. Pontet five 

 miles in a North Easterly direction, to see a cave which lies in a small 

 valley. Crossed the Gumani Nullah, flowing to the East over a culti- 

 vated country to the entrance of the valley ; the scenery about this 

 spot is particularly pleasing, the hills have sufficient height to display 

 the forests growing on their sides and summits to advantage, and the 

 plain is beautifully wooded with large trees, that have escaped being 

 felled by the Sonthals when clearing the forest. 



In one of these trees I saw a pair of very large wood-pigeons called 

 by the natives Begum Hurry el ; they are unknown in the plains outside 

 the hills. 



After a short scramble through jungle and over broken basalt and 

 agate, we arrived at a black wall-like precipice about fifty feet in height, 

 composed of basaltic columns over which a feeble trickle of water 

 spread itself, imparting to the rocks a pitchy hue. High up the rocks 

 two pakur fig trees have taken root, and thrown down from their posi- 

 tion, long and elegant rope like roots forty feet in length, whose silvery 

 whiteness contrasts well with the black columns. On the summit of 

 the precipice are some very fine naked armed sterculias, and at the 

 base of the precipice is a cave named Seer Gadi forty feet in length, 



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