GEOLOGY OF INDIA. 5 



from thence extends as the overlying rock, with little interruption, to the 

 extremity of the peninsula, covering the base of the mountains, and the 

 whole of the narrow belt of land that separates them from the sea, 

 exhibiting a succession of low rounded hills and undulations, and repos- 

 ing on the primitive rocks, which occasionally protrude above the surface, 

 as at Mai wan, Calicut, and some other points, where granite, for a short 

 space, becomes the surface rock ; from the main land, the laterite 

 passes over into Ceylon, where it re-appears, under the name of Kabuk, 

 and forms a similar deposit, of some extent, on the shore of that island. 

 Passing onwards from the western, or Malahar coast, round the extremity 

 of the peninsula, we leave this extensive iron-clay formation, and crossing 

 the granitic plains of Travancore, which are strewed with enormous blocks 

 of primitive rocks, we arrive at the termination of the chain. Here the 

 eastern and western ranges appear united, and, converging to a point with- 

 in about twenty miles of Cape Comorin, end abruptly at the Amboli pass 

 in a bluff peak oi granite, probably about 2000 feet high, from the base 

 of which a low range of similar rocks, forming a natural barrier to the 

 kingdom of Travancore, extends southward to the sea. It is to be re- 

 marked however, that the junction of the two great lateral ranges, (viz. 

 the Malabar and Coromandel,) seems to take place at the Nilgherry hills, 

 which rising into the loftiest summits of the peninsula, form the southern 



boundary 



" have never observed any animal or vegetable exuvia contained in it, but I have heard that such 

 " have been found immersed in its substance. As it is usually cut into the form of bricks for biiild- 

 " ing, in several of the native dialects, it is called the brick-stone (Itica CuUa). Wliere, however, 

 " by the washing away of the soil, part of it has been exposed to the air, and has hardened into a 

 " rock, its colour becomes black, and its pores and inequalities give it a kind of resemblance to the 

 " skin of a person affected with cutaneous disorders ; hence, in the Tamul language, it is called Shuri 

 " Cull, or itch-stone. The most proper English name would be Laterite, from Lateritis, the appel- 

 " lation that may be given to it in Science." It is observed also on the shores of Sumatra and the 

 Straits of Malacca, reposing on granitic rocks, particularly at Malacca, where that formation extends 

 many miles inland, corresponding, in all respects, with that of the Malabar Coast. 



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