3-29 



Geology of the South of Ivdia. 



[Oct. 



as many of them contain several subjects, (34 plants in 18 plates) 

 which IS the more deserving- of praise, as it nmst add greatly to the 

 cost, and detracts somewhat from t^e appearance as works of art, 

 by maivino- tht ui look crowded. We must now take leave of our 

 author wishing; him every success in the prosecution of his work. 



\\\.— Geology of the South of India. 



To 



The Editor Madras Journal 



of Literature and Science. 



Sir, 



I am induced to request that you will give the following quotati- 

 on from Sir J. Herschel's Introduction to the study of Natural Phi- 

 losophy a place ill your Journal, with the addition of some extracts 

 and ren.arks, in the hope that they may lead to the communication 

 of onginid information on the hitherto almost unknown geological 

 Constitution of the Peninsula. Herschel observes that ** Geology in 

 *' the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, un- 

 " doubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to astronomy; 

 like astronomy, too, its progress depends on the continual accu- 

 mulation of observations carried on for ages. But unlike astro- 

 *' notny, the observations on which it depends, when the whole ex- 

 ** tent of the subject to be explored is taken into consideration, can 

 " hardly yet be said to be more than commenced." * * * The spi- 

 " rit with which the subject has been prosecuted for many years ia 

 our own country has been rewarded with so rich a harvest of sur- 

 prising and unexpected discoveries, and has carried the investiga- 

 " tion of our island into such detail, as to have excited a correspond- 

 ing spirit among our continental neighbours ; while the same zeal 

 " which animates our countrymen on their native shore accompanies 

 " them in their sojourns abroad, and has already begun to supply a 

 fund of information respecting the geology of our Indian possessi- 

 ons, as well as of every other part where English intellect and re- 

 ^* search can penetrate." That the South of India may share in car- 

 rying on the investigations so happily commenced in Bengal, to 

 which Herschel alludes, it is necessary that something should be ge- 

 nerally known of what has been done in the districts to which we 

 have access ; these accounts are chiefly to be found in the Bengal 

 Transactions and Journal, neither of which are much read in this 



