lOS 



Tertiary rocks on Granite, 



The first extract from Dr. Boase, page 926, relative to fossiliferous 

 rook resting on granite, is too confused to be well understood ; and 

 to one familiar with the recent lucid, but not always temperate, dis- 

 cussions on this subject, it is painful to find in three short sentences 

 so much bad reasoning and careless statement. Nor is Captain 

 Campbell's preceding remarks any better ; viz. that it is singular that 

 the information of fossil strata resting on the Dartmoor granite 

 should reach India, at the time of the discoveries at Sydrapettah, 

 " for from my knowledge of the geology of the country lying west of 

 " this locality, I consider it most probable that, like the Dartmoor 



formation, the fossiliferous beds are superposed immediately on gra- 

 " nite." It may be so, but why state a fact believed to be important on 

 such vague information, or rather on no information ; as it is common 

 in most countries to find a patch of fossiliferous rock in the neighbour- 

 hood of granite, with a series of rock of all ages between. It was 

 Captain Campbell's duty, either to have examined for himself, or to 

 have said nothing of it. But the fact itself, if it be a fact, is 

 only of local interest, as the same occurs every where, as well as 

 in the Carnatic or Deccan. I need refer only to the oolite coal of 

 Sutherland, the lias of the same coast, and the celebrated junction 

 of the old red sandstone and granite of Caithness, all classical exam- 

 ples investigated by MaccuUoch, Sedgwick, and Murchison. I have 

 myself observed the same thing in various parts of Scotland, even in 

 the various divisions of the old red sandstone, which I have disco- 

 vered to be distinguished by characteristic fossils, all of which rest 

 in different places on granite, or on granite veins passing through 

 primary strata. 



But it is generally known that any rock may rest directly on gra- 

 nite ; an instance of which is the northern drift, or the alluvia of rivers 

 and torrents, or another extreme and equally striking instance is in 

 the volcanic rocks, and endusial limestones of Auvergne, or what 

 may be more interesting to us, the tertiary rocks of the Hyderabad 

 and Nagpore countries, described by myself. 



Captain Campbell says, that the only notice on the points of inves- 

 tigation on which Dr. Boase remarks, is an observation of mine to the 

 effect, that at the Mucklegundy Ghaut, limestone containing shells was 

 observed lying upon granite of a reddish colour. Capt. Campbell adds, 



