1838.] 



N ewhold 6n the Regar or Black Cotton Soil. 



209 



and the natron was found on the surface of the moist earth or mud." 

 '-London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of 

 Science - No,. 7 "i-^ March 1 838— pp. 286—29 1 . 



Royal Society, March 22, 1838.— A paper was read, entitled, "On 

 the Regar or Black Cotton Soil of India," by Captain Newbold, Aide. 

 de-Camp to Brigadier-General Wilson. Communicated by S. H. 

 Christie, Esq., M. A., Sec. R'. S. 



The author states that the Rdgar of India is found, by chemical 

 analysis, to consist of silica, in a minute state of division, together 

 with lime, alumina, oxide of iron, and minute portions of vegetable 

 a-nd animal debris. Hence it is usually considered as having been 

 formed by the di&integra-tion of trap rocks : the author, however, after- 

 examining its numerous trap dykes, traversing the formation of the 

 ceded districts, which he found invariably to decompose into a ferru- 

 ginous red soih perfectly d-istinet from the stratum of blrfck regar 

 through which the trap protrudes, was l^d to regard this opinion of its 

 origin as erroneous: and from the circumstance of its forming an ex- 

 tensive stratum of soil covering a large portion of the peninsula of 

 India, he believes iHo be- a sedimentary deposit from waters in a state 

 of repose. 



Specimens of basaltic trap and of the Regar soil were transmitted to 

 the S(jciety by the author, for the purpose of' analysis.— /6«c/. iVa. 76o 

 ^May I838.-P. 430. . 



