1834.] Geology of the South of India. 336 



The report to which allusion is made is published in the Journal 

 • of the Asiatic Society for June 1833,* and the hills of Medcondah 

 and Shevalingapah being- at no great distance from the road from 

 Jaulnah to Hyderabad, the extract, if you can find space for it, 

 may meet the eye of some officer who may be able to visit the 

 spot, and more fully investigate and describe the characters of 

 the hills and of the fossils. Specimens of the shells would be of 

 great value. In the number of the Journal for July 1833 an ex- 

 tract from the Mofussul Ukhbar announced the discovery ne^r 

 Sagar (in the same vast volcanic district) below a bed of trap 17 

 feet thick, of large reversed univalve shells of the same species, as 

 had been previously discovered silicified in indurated clay at 

 Jubalpoor. These had been described as follows by Dr. Spils- 

 bury in the number for April, 1833. 



" The locality of the fossil shells, which I have at length the 

 " pleasure to send to the Society, lies about 18 or 20 miles east 

 " of Jabalpar. The first three miles cross a sandy plain, which 

 " abruptly terminates at a small rivulet; when the soil changes 

 to the black alluvial one of the valley. At six miles cross the 

 Gour river, a rough ghat of trap: Xhe road winds on between 

 " trap hills varying from 50 to 300 feet high. I encamped at 

 Suleya on the same river (here 200 feet broad): the bed inter- 

 " sected with veins of heliotrope, quartz, massive and crystallized. 



The road then led through an undulating country, with irregular 

 " masses of trap, and for less than a mile beyond, masses of the 

 accompanying shell breccia, from a single shell to large blocks 

 " of two feet, extend, mixed with the trap, over a space about 

 " 300 feet square. The spot had been under tillee cultivation. 

 " There was no ndld or ravine near, whence I could judge of the 

 *• nature of the substrata, but at no great distance I could see the 

 *' trap appearing precisely as in the bed of the river. I asked 

 " the limeburner how he came to discover them? His account 



* " On the basaltic hill of Medkunda I observed lar^e masses of flint 

 lying on the surface and deeply connected ; also pieces of a siliceous stone 

 " containing shells which had lost their carbonic acid : the external surface 

 of these masses effervesced in acids. These shells belong to the genera 

 " turho and cyclostoma, and living specimens are found in the beds of most 

 " of the rivers as well as on the rocks in their neighbourhood. The spcci- 

 " fic gravity of these stones varies from 1.90 to 2.00, that of the fliut is 

 *' 2.60. A few miles from this place I observed the same shells enclosed 

 " in small pieces of earthy lime-stone ; they were lying on the basalt, 

 " which is here 2000 feet above the level of the sea and about 200 above 

 " the river Manjira : the base of the hill being granite, and the basalt not 

 " occupying more than 100 feet. Asiatic Journal for August, 1833, page 401. 



