24 ON THE GEOLOGY 



have separate names, such as Biudachal, JBandair, Kymur, &;c. which 

 serve for local distinction, yet viewing them as Geological portions, they 

 must necessarily merge in the common denomination of that great zone 

 of which they are component parts. 



I commenced my route at Mirzapur, a place of considerable traffic 

 on the river Gauges, and ascended the first range of hills at the pass of 

 Tcira. The tract between these two places is not interesting in a 

 Geological point of view, being covered with alluvium, which either re- 

 poses upon beds of hankai', or is intimately intermixed therewith, and 

 near the hills, the kanJcar is found by the excavation of wells, to repose 

 on sand-stone. 



The first range of hills is composed entirely of sand-stone, horizon- 

 tally stratified, consisting of fine grains of quartz, cemented by clay, and 

 coloured more or less by the red oxide of iron ; it is occasionally compact, 

 but its general character is rather friable, than compact, and it sometimes 

 contains galls of clay : it is also saliferous, as is evident from the plains 

 below being saturated with salt, and also from the salt works, on the 

 banks of the Tons river ; in many parts, it has sufficient cohesion for ar- 

 chitecture, and is quarried near to the Tdra pass for that purpose : con- 

 necting these circumstances, therefore, and a comparison of it, with 

 specimens of the same rock from England — -it appeared to me to corres- 

 pond with the new red sand-stone. 



From the crest of the Tdra pass, to the foot of the second range of 

 hills near Kattra, the whole tract is a platform, varying only from a per- 

 fect level, by occasional protrusions of the rock, which form small coUines, 

 and sometimes hills; this platform increases in elevation towards the south- 

 west ; in the part where I passed, except immediately on the crest of the hills, 



common 



