Dr Kelaartfs Notes on the Geology of Ceylon. 33 



Charles Lyell and others have suggested the possibility of 

 finding fossils even in gneiss of later origin. Granting that 

 this is the case, nothing could then be easier than to account 

 for the presence of fossils in decomposed masses of the same 

 kind of rocks. This subject is now engaging the attention 

 of the Geological Society of London, their notice being at- 

 tracted to it by the so-called "foot prints' 1 '' on the gneissic 

 rock at Kornegalle, which I have not yet had an opportunity 

 of examining.* 



Though the geological features of Ceylon resemble those 

 of Southern India, yet from the paucity of observations 

 perhaps there appears to be considerable difference in many 

 respects, especially in the nature of more recent deposits. 

 Kunker, a limestone gravel, has not been noticed in Ceylon, 

 nor has clay-slate been seen in this island, though its asso- 

 ciate rocks are found in great abundance. Both are found 

 in extensive beds in Southern India. Regur, the black cotton 

 soiHvhich covers nearly two-thirds of Southern India, has 

 not been noticed in Ceylon, and yet it is most probable that 

 all these three formations exist in some parts of the island : 

 most likely in the northern districts. 



The only alluvial, or rather fluviatile deposit in Ceylon, 

 resembling in external characters the Regur of India, is the 

 black soil of Nuwera Ellia and its neighbourhood. With 

 this difference, however, regur lies over a limestone gravel, 

 and the blackish loam of Nuwera Ellia over a quartz gravel, 

 with a substratum of clayey earths formed of the lithomargic 

 hills and valleys over which the loam and gravel were de- 

 posited. A deposit of gravel and loam has also been observed 

 on the Nielgherries 6000 feet above the sea level. These 

 deposits of loam and gravel on the patnas and plains of 

 Nuwera Ellia, are considered by casual observers to be the 

 decayed particles of the rocks in the immediate vicinity 

 brought down by the rains. If this is their real nature, the 

 decomposed particles of the gneiss and quartzite which chiefly 

 compose these existing rocks above the plains, could not by 

 any means have taken their present position of the loam and 



* Since this paper was written, I have examined the rock, and found it to be 

 alminated granite, and the marks merely the effects of weathering. 

 VOL. LIV. NO. CVII. — JANUARY 1853. 



