84 - ^ - REMARKS ON THE 



upwards of a loot square, and many of them nearly transparent, through 

 the substance of which prismatic crystals of schorl were seen to shoot. 

 These rocks were not stratified. 



, Ac: 



Sirpur is situated ten miles N. of Pandua. The route for the first 

 five miles lies over the usual plain of Guzerat : M^e then enter a more hilly 

 country ; the hills, however, are very low and their summits are occupied 

 by a table-land. B'lrpur stands on an elevated situation, and the low 

 hills with which it is surrounded, are covered to a great depth, as may be 

 seen by the ravines and nullah courses, by an alluvial soil similar to that 

 of the plains. Owing to this circumstance I had no opportunity of exa- 

 mining the rocks in situ — the stone used in building, and from the quan- 

 tity of it seen it must have occurred in great abundance in the neighbour- 

 hood, was a very compact quartzose sandstone, or rather a ferruginous 

 quartz of a red color. From the appearance of the fragments it must oc- 

 cur distinctly stratified. 



,(To We had now left the rich and highly cultivated plains of Guzerat, and 

 had crossed the barrier of a hilly and jungly portion of this district, not 

 only the face of the country had changed, but the appearance and charac- 

 ter of its inhabitants. Heretofore we had a rich alluvial soil, cultivated 

 by a comparatively speaking civilized, or at least a more peaceable people 

 — numerous thickly inhabited towns and villages were seen scattered over 

 it — it is watered by numerous tanks, and wells, and rivers, and the coun- 

 try resembles more the richer portions of Bengal than any other part of 

 India which I have seen. The surface of the country passed does certain- 

 ly not present much to attract the notice of the Geologist ; with the assist- 

 ance of boring instruments, however, much valuable information would, 

 no doubt, be obtained, and an interesting comparison might be drawn 

 between the alluvial formation of this district — that of Bengal — the 



gb'D'Jwqji London 



