38 ON THE GEOLOGY 



be observed, that the plains of Bundelkhand, attest th.3Lt granite is there the 

 basis rock. 



Though I am convinced that granite is very near the surface, in many 

 parts of the tract which has fallen under my observation, yet it is evi- 

 dent, that there is a series of primary stratified rocks, intervening be- 

 tween it and the secondary formations, as in other parts of the world, 

 though there is reason to think that they are often wanting ; the flanks 

 of primitive ranges of hills almost always exhibit a series of these 

 rocks, and as an instance, I refer to that which is laid bare in the 

 bed of the Nermada river, between Lamaita and Beragarh, these strata 

 are not intermixed, they present a series of beds from gneiss upwards, 

 each in its place, graduating one into another imperceptibly, and all 

 preserving the same dip, direction, and parallelism, without any tendency 

 to derange each other, and they are found on the spot, where the river in- 

 tersects the primitive range of Je^eZjoitr. 



In this part of India, however, the primary formations are so exten- 

 sively covered by secondary and overlying rocks, that vallies of denuda- 

 tion alone expose them to view ; and under that impression I observed in a 

 former paragraph, that many inferences may hereafter be drawn from a 

 careful examination of the valley of the Nermada river, and I may also add, 

 from a careful examination of all great vallies of denudation, which, like 

 that of the Nermada river, exhibit a view of the primary strata, by removing 

 the superincumbent beds under which they were buried. 



The sand-stone formation is the next which attracts notice ; its thick- 

 ness is, of course, variable, it is four hundred and twenty feet, at the Bouti 

 cataract; and from the compactness of the rock, at the bottom of that 

 water-fall, I am disposed to think that it does not extend far below; there 



can 



