146 OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
ABBOTT of the Bengal Artillery, so that there no longer 
appears any mystery in connection with the origin and 
characteristics of this most curious formation. In 1845 three 
papers on the same general class of subjects were presented 
by him to the Bengal Asiatic Society, and printed in their 
Transactions—entitled ‘‘Notes, chiefly Geological, across the 
Peninsula of India from Madras to Goa, &c.’’—while the sub- 
ject was continued in four very valuable papers published 
the following year in the Bengal Fournal, containing notes 
on the geology of both the eastern and western coasts; one 
on the formations around Hyderabad having been drawn up 
by him in 1847. In 1845 a series of very valuable papers by 
him appeared in the Fournal of the Royal Asiatic Society of 
London, entitled ‘‘A Summary of the Geology of Southern 
India’; and in this was comprised an outline of nearly the 
whole of his previous researches. The article on the Geolo- 
gy of India published in the Calcutta Review for 1848, is 
little more than an abstract of these papers, so far as the 
East is particularly concerned. In these papers our other 
peculiarly Indian formation—laterite—had occupied a large 
share of attention, as Kunkur had done before; and though 
much information both new and valuable was furnished by 
him on the subject, his arguments regarding it are less con- 
vincing, and his conclusions less clear and definite, than those 
attained in reference to the fresh-water limestone. To him 
we owe the first account that has been published of the lig- 
nite found, or said to be found, in laterite near Cochin, 
for we candidly confess ourselves still unsatisfied on the 
subject ; as well as of the corundum pits in Southern India, 
the mineral itself having been known for nearly half a cen- 
tury. In 1848 he was, on the appointment of Captain 
MALCOLM tothe agency at Joudpore, nominated Assistant 
to General FRASER, Resident at the Court of the Nizam—a 
situation he was unhappily not long destined to enjoy. His 
health now began rapidly to fail him, the symptoms being 
supposed pulmonary—and he was recommended to try the 
sea coast for the benefit of air: he proceeded accordingly to 
Madras, and afterwards to Bombay, where he for some months 
resided. He visited Scinde, and made a short sojourn at 
