1854.] Notes upon the Geology of the Bajmahal Hills. 267 



rocks, along the western escarpment of the Eajmahal Hills, similar 

 rocks are found in detached basins, covering several square miles of 

 area, near to Gropikandur and Dubrajpoor, # and again in a similar 

 detached position encircled on all sides by the sandstone and trap 

 rocks, near to and North of the village of Dhumni in the Chuperbhita 

 pass. 



Throughout all this area, where these rocks are uncovered, the soil 

 resulting from their decomposition, as might be expected, is poor 

 and sandy. Prequent deposits of kunkur occur overlying these 

 rocks, and where this is the case, the soil is often good and produc- 

 tive. The greater portion of the district is tolerably level, broken 

 up by the small projecting ridges of rock, and is thickly populated. 

 Dotted over with the large and fine sal trees left by the Sontals in 

 their clearings, and varied by the masses of rock whose dark ridges 

 beetle over the richly coloured patches of wood at their base, this 

 district affords some of the most pleasing, and perfectly park-like 

 scenery in the Damin-i-koh (Katticoon, Eajabhita, Simr) wanting only 

 expanses of water, to render it most beautiful. 



Eesting upon the upturned edges of these old rocks, quite uncon- 

 formably, comes a series of conglomerate, sandstone, and shaly beds, 

 with occasional developments of coal, and of ironstone. This group 

 of beds stretches with some interruption from South to North 

 through the whole range of the Eajmahal hills, no where, however, 

 attaining any great thickness, or covering any great area. In this 

 series, occur the several beds of coal, which have been noticed by 

 several authors, as existing in this district. 



The series consists of alternating beds of conglomerates, pebbly 

 sandstones, and quartzose grits, of earthy sandstones, and shaly 

 beds, with occasional beds of bituminous shales and of coal. The 

 prevailing colour is white or yellowish-white, occasionally brown, 

 and ferruginous, with a few beds of a deep red colour. As a whole 

 they are very felspathic, the pebbly beds being generally of pure 

 quartz in a felspathic cement : some of the beds are composed almost 

 entirely of decomposed felspar. In several places the beds near the 

 junction of the gneiss and other crystalline rocks consist of scarcely 

 worn or rounded fragments of these rocks, in a granular cement, 

 * Coloured as coal measures in Dr. McClelland's Map \ Report 1848-49. 



2n2 



