183S.] Reports on the Coal and Mineral Resources of India. 189 



their nature with the gneiss and sieniles composhig the central masses 

 of the Kasya group, the primitive character of which, there is now so 

 much reason to doubt. 



" As the general elevation of the southern base of the Aravully is 

 higher than the summits of the Vindhya, the horizontal beds 

 of basalt and amygdaloid of which the latter are composed would 

 seem from their thinning towards the north of Malwa, to have 

 been poured in the form of lava from open vents in that quarter, and 

 that they spread from thence according to the law by which the motion 

 of viscous fluid is regulated when exposed to a surface unequally in- 

 chned. The first flood of ejected matter would descend chiefly into 

 valleys and in proportion as these are obliterated, the effects of suc- 

 ceeding eruptions would be less perceptible in depth, and a series of 

 beds would thus be formed corresponding to that described in the 

 southern escarpment of the Vindhya. 



" The only part of the extensive tracts here noticed in which, from 

 the information we possess, coal might be sought for is in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Baug, a short distance from the banks of the Nerbudda 

 under 22® 10' N. lat. and 74^^ 50' E. long, where Mr. Fraser found sand- 

 stone and limestone the same as they occur in Bundlecund,* and as the 

 river is navigable to boats drawing little water from this point to 

 Hoosingabad four degrees distant, where coal has been already found, 

 the local improvement to which a discovery of coal might lead, at a 

 situation so favourable as Baug, would render it desirable that trials 

 should be made in that quarter, especially as iron is plentifully afforded 

 in the same vicinity from whence it is supplied to the Indore, and 

 neighbouring markets. 



" Carnelia?i. — If these districts are defective in coal, they are how- 

 feter highly productive in a great variety of other minerals. The prin- 

 cipal source of the Cambay carnelian is situated in the Rajpiplee hills, 

 about seven miles from Ruttenpore. Dr. Copland in the first volume 

 of the Bombay Literary Transactions, describes the mines as pits 

 about fifty feet deep into which the workmen descend by means of 

 ladders. A new pit is formed every season rather on account of the 

 old one being destroyed during the rains than from their contents being 

 exhausted. The carnelians are found in nodules from a few ounces in 

 weight to as many pounds, and are scattered throughout a red gravelly 

 clay in great abundance. Their colours vary originally from olive to 



* " Geol. Transac. Vol. 1, New Ser. 157,'' 



