598 Notes upon a tour through the Rdjmehal Hills. [No. 7. 



ley full of Sonthal villages to Umrapara, on the banks of the Bans- 

 looee Nuddie. 



At the sixth mile or near Domuraheer, passed over a flooring com- 

 posed of the heads of basaltic columns. The rock throughout this 

 long valley affects the columnar shape and in the Ekri nullah which 

 drains the valley, masses of basalt are to be seen that have assumed a 

 cylindrical shape measuring twelve feet in circumference. 



\0th February, 1851. — Immediately to the east of the Bungalow at 

 Umrapara, the bed of the Banslooee Nuddie is crossed by a broad belt 

 of basalt, causing a fall in the stream of about twelve feet ; the basalt 

 is thickly disseminated with nests of radiated, acicular and tabulated 

 zeolite. The acicular specimens are of great beauty, some of the nests 

 measuring four inches in length, with crystals of a microscopic fine* 

 ness half an inch in length ; the flat or stilbite specimens appear in 

 large flat plates of a pearly lustre exceedingly soft, yielding to the 

 nail ; the basalt is of a dark green approaching to black, is very tough 

 and heavy, has a sharp angular fracture and is highly magnetic. The 

 rocks from the action of the water are worn into deep smooth cups, 

 varying from the size of a tea-cup to that of a large cauldron. 



In the centre of the nullah, below the falls and detached from the 

 general mass of rocks, over which the water spreads, is a group of 

 colossal basaltic columns ; one of a pentagonal form I found by mea- 

 surement to be forty-eight feet in circumference. The columns are 

 free from zeolite. 



From Umrapara, direction south, eight miles, I visited the Doob- 

 rajpoor and Gopeekandur coal beds. The coal is found in the Tircul- 

 tia or Tirputtee nullah which flows in a valley between sandstone hills, 

 and near the two Sonthal villages above mentioned. The coal which 

 forms the bed of the stream for about half a mile at Doobrajpoor is 

 slaty and good for nothing, what may be below it remains to be seen. 

 The following is a vertical section through the bank of the Tircultia, 

 down to the water level. 



Feet Inches. 



Dark coloured earth, 2 6 



Slaty coal, 1 8 



Sand with threads of coal, 3 6 



Slaty coal, 1 2 



Sandstone, „ „ 



