62 THE TRAP FORMATION OF 



lastly, the eye never perceives any inclination worth mentioning, or Va- 

 riation from the horizontal position, either where viewed in the whole 

 alluding to their general air and look, or when viewed in any part as re- 

 gards the constituent, angular and tabular masses of these sand-stone 

 rocks. All this leads to the decision, that the rock in question is the new 

 red sand-stone, and the lower division of that formation as defined by 

 Maccullock, otherwise the principal compact rock is by no means so 

 tender as to be unfit for economical purposes. On the contrary, it is a hard, 

 glassy, splintery substance, evidently composed of fine grains of sand held 

 together by a solution of silica, and assuredly not a free working stone, 

 though it is squarred with some difficulty, and failure, into appropriate mass- 

 es, and every where used as the common building material. Varieties of less 

 frequent occurrence, and differing little from the principal rock, except in 

 being somewhat softer, are hewn for the architectural purposes of the 

 small temples of worship, and chisselled to produce alto relievo represen- 

 tations of the various Deities, &c. 



The trap mantles round at the feet of all these sand-stone hills, and 

 renders them isolated as far as regards the surface of the land. The an- 

 gular masses composing the hills, differ much in measurement, whilst they 

 are set together very closely in a horizontal position ; or if any remarkable 

 interval exists between the masses, where the vertical separation occurs, it 

 is generally empty, no clay, no debris, nothing will be found. The massive 

 bi-coloured blocks are not confined to any particular spots, they are casual 

 every where ; and the same is to be said of the slaty species, for a nest 

 of this latter will now and then be seen with an immense mass of the 

 common characteristic massive kind resting upon it ; though at Maswast, 

 Satgerh, Garspur, JBilsa, and NarsinhgJier, there would appear to be a 

 continued stratum, occupying a place in the whole line of the hill, at 

 each of these places. Often at the ends of the hills, there is a bluff 



ragged 



