206 MINERALS COLLECTED 



pebbles. This hill is in contact with the hill of RdmteJc; that is to say, 

 the sloping sides of each meet before the valley between them falls to 

 the level of the surrounding plain, and on the slope of the greater hill, the 

 gneiss begins to appear immediately. This gneiss is of various colours, 

 although the texture is nearly uniform. The specimen exhibits the prevail- 

 ing rock : Dr, Voysey called it " gneiss, with the aspect of a rock formed 

 by mechanical deposition." 



The abrupt-peaked termination of the hill on which stand the 

 temples, is about five hundred feet above the plain. The ascent on 

 this side, from the village, is by a broad, steep flight of well-laid 

 gneiss steps, with resting places and seats at intervals : the whole 

 is of the best construction, and promises to last as long as the hill 

 itself. 



The view from the top of the hill amply repays the labour of ascent. 

 Southward it extends to Kdmtt, over a tolerably cultivated, open plain, 

 but which, when the crops are gathered, has a barren enough appear- 

 ance, for the intermediate villages are small and few, and for want of wa- 

 ter, scarcely anything of what may be called the garden crop of the 

 more favored parts of the country, is to be seen. Immediately around 

 the hill of Rdmtek, however, are numerous large tanks, which supply 

 irrigation to a number of Pdii Khets, and a few gardens of common 

 vegetables, throughout the year. The ground near the foot of the 

 hills is covered with mangoe trees, which extend a considerable way 

 up their slopes, on what looks as barren a soil as can well be imagined. 

 To the north, across a small valley of two miles or less, which is always 

 green, and well studded with clumps of trees and villages, rises the first 

 range of the hills which extend to the Nermadd. 



The 



