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{Notices of Books : 



[July 



hope of finding coal in its course, but by crossiag the frontier of Sha- 

 kawut to the westward better prospects are aifordsd. About forty 

 miles from Jhodepore, and fifty from Nagore, Mr. Fraser saw a heavy, 

 dull, coarse red sandstone rise to the surface in small hills, which soon 

 unite into ranges no where exceeding three or four hundred feet in 

 height, and not very continuous.* Some of these hills are composed 

 of the red sandstone varying from fine to coarse grained, and are 

 evidently proved to be the strata composing the base of the desert 

 which here on its verge rise horizontally above the general level. 

 Those numerous fertile spots distributed every where at distances 

 of from five to fifteen miles from each other throughout the great 

 desert, and distinguished by a spring or oasis, appear also to owe their 

 peculiarity to rocks which seem to be connected with the cohI 

 measures ; these and the Jesulmer range of low hills composed of 

 limestone and sandstone, might be searched for coal with a degree of 

 confidence equal at least to the little knowledge we possess of the 

 structure of the desert. Camels here afford such an excellent means 

 of conveyance that researches should not be too much confined to tha, 

 vicinity of coasts and rivers. 



" Thus, the plains extending along the northern side of the mineral 

 district from Ajmere to Shakawut, appear to hold out in common with 

 other parts of the great desert, sufficient encouragement for the institu- 

 tion of enquiries for coal. 



" Although supplies of coal in this quarter would be of no immediate 

 use to purposes of inland navigation, yet as the Loony or salt river, 

 which rises in the neighbouring declivities of the Aravully and enters 

 the Run, is during certain seasons we may suppose navigable, coal 

 might, if found in its course be readily conveyed from the desert to the 

 Gulf of Cutch, and there be available to external navigation in case 

 the more direct indications of the presence of supplies in Cutch itself 

 should fail. 



" From Jeypore the district in which the lateral ridges of the Ara- 

 vully and Chittore ranges unite, to Mongir, a distance of nearly 800 

 miles, the face of the country rises gradually from the western banks 

 of the Jumna and Ganges, thus forming the north-east aspect of the 

 great table lands of Central India. Where the change of levels is 

 abrupt as in the case of the hill of Tooham at Hansi in one extremity 

 of this space, and Rajmal in the other, the rock by which it is effected 

 is sienite, while the intermediate space is formed chiefly of sandstone 



* " Geol. Tiansac, 1 Vol. new, 149.'' 



