IN BUNDELKHAND. 12i 



beds to admit of this conclusion, and such only as might have accidently laid 

 on the surface could be so transported.* 2nd, I cannot agree with his nomen- 

 clature with regard to t " clay slate formation," because he himself says, that 

 in using the term clay slate, he does not mean the Thonsclmffer of Werner, 

 which is the only recognizable term for that rock according to the Wernerian 

 system, but excepting these two points, I have found great accordance 

 with his result, and am happy in having it in my power to express it. 



4th. There is another circumstance to which I must advert, but I do 

 so with diffidence and under a hope that it will be considered merely con- 

 jectural. Dr. Brewster supposes the diamond to have originated like 

 amber, perhaps from the consolidation of vegetable matter, and that it 

 gradually acquired its crystalline form, by the influence of time and the 

 slow action of corpuscular forces : the late Dr. Voysey adverted to this 

 opinion in his account of the diamond mines of Southern India ; and on 

 the occasion of publishing an abstract of that paper in his Journal of 

 Science, Dr. Brewster observed that he saw no reason to alter his opi- 

 nion : now as the rock matrix of the diamond of Panna appears in some 

 respects, though not altogether, to resemble that of Banganpilli in South- 

 ern India, there would seem to be little chance of my conjecture being 

 useful, still however as every opinion regarding the origin of this fine 

 mineral is as yet theoretical, I will not withhold what occurred to me on 

 this subject, though I again repeat that I offer it with great diffidence. 



The 



* My meaning with regard to this point of difference is, that I consider the transported dia- 

 monds to have been chiefly swept away by diluvial action, and that alluvial agency must have 

 been very inconsiderable, though I do not deny its partial influence, 



\ It has occurred to me on reading Dr. Voysey's paper on the diamond mines of Southern 

 India, that the rock which he has termed clay slate, may, perhaps, be the slate clay of the English 

 geologists, or the secondary argillaceous schists or shales of Dr. IVIaccullogk, which are associated 

 with secondary sandstone ; Dr. Heyne mentions slate clay as being the chief constituent of the 

 surrounding rocks in the Banyairpilli mines. 



H 2 



