§ GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



may be said to surround by an interrupted chain chiefly between high 

 and low water mark." The further detailed description of these rocks 

 given by this scientific observer, and his account of the rich variety of 

 beautiful minerals abounding in that Island, will be found highly interest- 

 ing and instructive. 



Proceeding on to the eastern side of the peninsular, and northward, 

 along the foot of the mountains, we observe a country differing very con- 

 siderably from the Malabar coast in appearance and geological charac- 

 ter. The plains of the Cororaandel coast form rather a broad though 

 unequal belt of land between the mountains and the sea, exhibiting the 

 alluvial deposits of all the rivers and streams that descend from the 

 southern portion of the table land. The mountain chain that forms the 

 eastern boundary of the peninsula, begins to diverge eastward where its 

 continuity is interrupted by the valley of Koimbatur (already mentioned) 

 From thence it breaks into a succession of parallel ranges, inferior in 

 elevation and in unbroken continuity to the western chain ; and in the 

 further progress northward, after branching off into subordinate hilly 

 ranges, occupying a wide tract of unexplored country, and affording vallies 

 for the passage of the great rivers, that drain nearly all the waters of the 

 peninsula into the Bay of Bengal, this eastern range may be said to ter- 

 minate at the same latitude as that of the commencement of the western. 

 Granitic rocks, (principally sieuite,) seem to form the basis of the whole 

 of these eastern ranges, appearing at most of the accessible summits, 

 from Cape Comorin to Hyderabad. Resting on the granite, gneiss, and 

 mica-slate, that form the sides and base of the mountains, are sometimes 

 seen clay-slate, hornblende-slate, Jlinly - slate, chlorite and talc -slate, and 

 primitive or crystaline lime-stone, affording, in some places, marbles 

 of various colours, as in the district of Tinnivelly, near Cotallum, where 

 granite is observed rising above the surface, in remarkable globular 



or 



