1838.] Malcolmson ov the Basaltic District of India. 



207 



from Jubalpore (lat. 23o 45' N., long. ^ block of indura- 



ted clay, resting onbasHU*;by Dr. Voysey, in the Gawilgbur range 

 (near the table-land of Jillan)t ; by Dr. vSpry, in a bed of limestone 

 overlaid by trap, near SaugorJ (lat. 24^ 15' N., long. 79° E.) ; by Dr. 

 Vosey, in a siliceous rock in the hills of Medcondah and Swalpigapah 

 south of the Godavery§; also at Jirpah, N. of the sources of the Tap- 

 tee (about lat. 22o N., long. 7Bo E.)|!. 



Comparative Age of the Formations.~Oxi this head few observations 

 are necessary. North of Nagpoor the granite has been shown to be 

 more recent than the sandstone. The trap in the form of veins pene- 

 trates the granite, and affects, en masse, the limestone and sandstone, 

 and entangles in its substance the fossiliferous chert. If therefore, the 

 last belongs to the tertiary period, part at least of the basalt of the 

 Sichel hills, forming the eastern boundary of the great basaltic region 

 of India, cannot be assigned to one more ancient. Of the age of the 

 limestone and sandstone Mr. Malcolmson offers no positive opinion, 

 but he objects to their being considered the equivalents of the new red 

 sandstone and lias of England^, because their order of superposition in 

 the district examined by himself, is inverted, the limestone underlying 

 the sandstone; and he only ventures to suggest, that they may belong 

 to the older secondary, or younger transition systems. 



Travertine and Kunkur.— Springs charged with carbonate of lime 

 prevail throughout the country, and in the bed of some of the rivers, 

 calcareous matter is so abundantly deposited as to cement the pebbles 

 into a hard rock. " It is impossible," says the author, ''to examine 

 these accumulations without immediately perceiving the origin of the 

 nodular limestone or kunkur, which is so extensively distributed in 

 India." 



* Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 205 and 583. 

 + Asiatic Researches, vol. xviii. p. 192 



i Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii. pp.376. 639. 



? Asiatic Researches, vol. xviii. p. 193, and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

 vol. ii. p. 304. 



H Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. p. 247. 



IT See Major Franklin's memoir on Bundelcund, &c., in the Geol. Tmns., 2d ser., vol. 

 jii. p. 91, e)f w?., also Asiatic Researches, vol. xviii. p. 24, et seq. ; and ihil. Mag. and 



Annals, N. S., vol. iv. p. 294. 



