104 Geolocjy of Bangahre, and of [Jan. 



The geological enquirer labours under mau}^ disadvantages in India — 

 the climate is constantly opposing him, and the condition of the inhabit- 

 ants and state of civilization such, that few deep sections ever meet 

 the view as in happier and less barbarous climes. The enquirer in 

 other lands, has only to observe the stones used in building the houses 

 of the inhabitants, from whence he may form some idea of the principal 

 rocks in the neighbourhood; but in India, where mud takes the place of 

 stone, this cannot be done, and we must be satisfied with the sections 

 or nullahs naturally made, in the absence of artificial ones, and betake 

 ourselves to these and to the large wells and tanks, the bunds and sides 

 of which are constructed of stone. In his scientific investigations, the 

 geologist is one, who daily realises the old classic adage, of truth being 

 at the bottom of a well, that is, deep in the bowels of the earth. Of 

 these nullahs three veiy large ones exist near the cantonment — one 

 about 2 miles from Ulsoor on the north side of the Madras road — an- 

 other close to the Infantry butts, and another about a quarter of a mile 

 to the south of the Belfry. In many of these the decomposed masses 

 of earth are of a beautiful pink colour, and have assumed a conical 

 shape — I may describe a smaller one, which is distant about a mile and 

 a half west from the Infantry butts, running about east and west, and 

 teraiinating near a small village— it is somewhat different from the 

 others, and I select it in consequence. At the upper or v^rest end, beds 

 of hornblende slate are exposed, then beds of mica or rather chlorite, 

 sometimes the two running into each other, and decomposing into a 

 yellowish green earth — a little way down the decomposing rock is 

 almost a pegmatite, much red felspar with quartz, with a very slight 

 coating or tinge of chlorite of a yellow green colour — the mica and 

 hornblende are found again predominating, then further on the felspar 

 and quartz — some masses close grained and passing into eurite. At the 

 bottom of the nullah there is a village, as before mentioned, and much 

 hornblende slate with veins of quartz running through it, giving the 

 rocks much the appearance of flinty slate — pieces are lying about of a 

 ferruginous dark appearance from the hyper-oxydation of the iron in the 

 hornblende and quartz. Lying at the bottom of the nullah towards the 

 top, there is also a species of soft chlorite slate. What is called th« 

 Belfry, is a small spot of elevated ground, upon which a pagoda, or rather 

 tower, is erected, to the north of this nullah — it consists of lithomarge, 

 and is said to be the highest spot of the table-land of Mysore. The 

 elevation is one mass of lithomarge of a mottled red and white colour, 

 which adheres strongly to the tongue and feels fine and greasy. This 



