1852.] The Kurrukpoor Hills. 197 



twelve miles to the west, lying under the northern face of the hills. 

 The first five miles of our road was through rich rice fields up to the 

 men's knees in water ; when we arrived opposite the Maruk valley, a 

 mountain torrent which descends with great violence from this gap, was 

 found so swollen and deep that we all were obliged to plunge in and 

 swim across ; our road now lay through a handsome forest of mango, 

 acacia, mimosa, phoenix, sakua, peepul and banian trees, besides stercu- 

 lia, bauhinea, bamboo, zyzyphi, and butea, both stunted and climbing : 

 the road strewed here and there with quartz rocks. 



In the evening went to the Luheytah quarries where a coarsely gra- 

 nulated quartzose rock is quarried for mill stones. The quarry is on 

 the flank of a long naked quartz rock on the southern face of a detach- 

 ed hill named Juthootteea extending for half a mile through a dense 

 jungle, the naked rock resembling the rounded back of some huge 

 monster. This stone is quarried and taken in the form of native 

 mill-stones to Monghyr, from whence it is exported in great quantities 

 to Bengal and other parts of India. The rock is a porphyritic quartz, 

 with translucent masses of quartz embedded in a greenish grey sub- 

 stance also resembling quartz. 



4th September. — Ascended the hills by the Gorya Khoh Ghat, a 

 deep wooded glen where hornblende and hornblende slate of a good 

 quality is quarried in large quantities and exported to Monghyr, the 

 associated rocks being chlorite schist, massive asbestos resembling a 

 foliated lithomarge, slightly fibrous when crushed, and clay-stone. The 

 road up the Ghat, which is a mere foot-path, passes over asbestos and 

 clay-stone ; the asbestos is not of the fibrous kind, but appears as 

 an agglutinated species of this mineral. Its general appearance is 

 that of a rock composed of very small and firmly adhering horizontal 

 strata, of about one or two inches in thickness composed of vertical 

 agglutinated shining fibres of asbestos, it is greasy to the touch, 

 its fracture is shining and glossy like silk, streak earthy, colours 

 lively blue, glistening, jasper red or yellow ; near the foot of the 

 hill Maruk, at Maruk Ghat these minute strata are seen in great 

 perfection, having been at that spot denuded by the action of a 

 mountain torrent into a succession of precipices some hundred of 

 feet in height. At the summit of the Ghat we entered a dense forest 

 of underwood and trees, the road winding amongst low hills of asbes- 



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