183S.j Reports o?i the Coal and Mineral Resources of India. 185 



" The geographical importance of the Aravully or northern range 

 of Central India has only very recently been ascertained, and we are 

 indebted chiefly for this information to Colonel Tod.* It is connected 

 with the Chittore range by means of the hilly country west of Oode- 

 pore, and by the hills of Rath that form the eastern boundary of the 

 Guzerat. These L'ltter ranges are united with the Vindliya range and 

 the table lands of Malwa, thus connecting the three distinct systems 

 into a single group, which seffms to spread from a general centre in the 

 Gazerat with lessening altitudes towards the Gangetic plain:^, except 

 in the instance of the Vindhya range which may be said to be pro- 

 longed to Mpngir where it suddenly terminates in the manner described 

 in a former section. 



" The Vindhya range is generally elevated about 1C50 feet above the 

 valley of the Nerbudda to which it presents a steep and precipitous 

 declivity ; bat in an opposite direction it expands into the table lands of 

 Mcilwa, the whole being formed of alternate beds of basalt and amyg- 

 daloid placed horizontally ; of these beds Captain Dangerfieldf reckon- 

 ed fourteen j the uppermost is described as a porous decomposing rock, 

 some of \?'hose cells are empty, and others filled more or less with green 

 earth, zeolites, calc-spar and crystals of quartz. The basalt in some 

 cases, though rarely, presents the form of six-sided prisms. 



" The uppermost of these beds is usually from fifteen to thirty feet 

 thick, but the others increase in depth, the lower they are observed in 

 the series, and the lowest bed of basalt observed is said to be 300 feet 

 in thickness. J 



" Crossing the table lands of Malwa in a northerly direction little 

 variation is found in the character of the beds of amygdaloid and basalt, 

 until approaching the Chittore range where they are observed to be- 

 come thinner, and finally to disappear beneath the beds of quartz and 

 sandstone of which this range is composed. Mr. Fraser mentions a 

 patch of limestone as occurring with the sandstone in one of the val- 

 leys at the base of the Chittore range, south of Oodepore, and the 

 sandstone says Captain Dangerfield, extends round a short distance 

 jouth of Towra to the western boundary of Malwa, resting, it would 

 seem from him, on the basaltic rocks. 



" Captain Stewart in his notes made during a journey from Mhow 

 to Baroda, affords an interesting section of the rocks composing the 

 westivn descent from the table land of Miilwa to the plains of Guzerat, 



* " Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthaii." 

 t " Malcolm's Cent. lad,"* * " Ibid>' 



