No. 5. — 1849.] GEOLOGY OF CEYLON. 



215 



India, and sometimes laterite being found over limestone, 

 would lead us to suppose that laterites are of two periods : 

 the one, and only one perhaps, existing in Ceylon being of 

 the weathering of rocks in situ, and therefore still being 

 formed, and the other a deposit of disintegrated lateritic 

 matter (over more recent formations) derived from previously 

 existing lateritic rocks. The subject, however, requires 

 further investigation ; it is involved in greater mystery than 

 many other geological phenomena. Ceylon affords many 

 opportunities for carrying on observations necessary for its 

 complete solution. The features of the laterite of Southern 

 India, which induced Captain Newbold to suppose laterite to 

 be a distinct formation, may also exist in Ceylon ; therefore 

 Members of the Asiatic Society will do well to note the 

 nature of the rocks on which the Ceylon laterite lies, and to 

 examine whether any of it contains lignite or is in the 

 slightest degree fossilliferous. The discovery of fossils 

 alone will not prove that laterite is not decomposed gneiss 

 in situ, for Sir Charles Lyell and others have suggested the 

 possibility of finding fossils even in gneiss of later origin. 

 Granting that this is the case, nothing could then be easier 

 than to account for the presence of fossils in decomposed 

 masses of the same kind of rocks. This subject is now 

 engaging the attention of the Geological Society of London, 

 their notice being attracted to it by the so-called foot- 

 prints on the gneissic rock at Kurunegala, which I have 

 not yet had an opportunity of examining.* 



Though the geological features of Ceylon resemble those 

 of Southern India, yet from the paucity of observations 

 perhaps, there appears to be considerable difference in many 

 respects, especially in the nature of more recent deposits. 

 Kunker, a limestone gravel, has not been noticed in Ceylon, 



* Since this Paper was written I bave examined the rock and found 

 it to be laminated granite, and the marks merely the effects of weathering. 



