6 



Geology of the Country 



[July 



The approach to Laulpet is exceedingly picturesque, on account of 

 the many hills surrounding it, and the beautiful valley, so well cultivat- 

 ed with gardens, and fruit trees. The magnificent Mosque, close to 

 the road, heightens the beauty of the scene, which receives no trifling 

 additional ornament from the majestic Tamarind trees near the river. 



The country, on both sides of the river, is alluvial and sandy, and 

 after two or three miles it is interspersed with hills and knolls. Gn 

 their summits, or sides, are seen rounded blocks, like logging 

 stones ; and it is remarkable that this conformation obtains oftener on. 

 the hills to the right, than on those to the left, of the road. Does this 

 appearance indicate a difference in the rocks of both sides ? 



Having miscalculated my time, or lost more of it than I was aware 

 of on the road, it was nearly sun-set when I reached the first little ridge 

 which forms the beginning of the pass. This ridge is hardly two hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the plain, and, in the section for the road, 

 I could clearly see that the rock of which it is formed is sienitic gra- 

 nite (No. 24). 



A torrent divides this little ridge from the high hill, up the steep 

 acclivity of which the pass is cut. It was dark, and I was obliged in 

 consequence to make use of torch es, when I began the ascent, therefore 

 I could see but little of the nature of the rocks forming this second hill. 

 Yet on examining, afterwards, the specimens I had detached from the 

 huge masses which had been blasted both on the floor and on the 

 sides of the road, I found that this second hill, like the first, is formed 

 of sienitic granite, with this slight difference, that, in some of the spe- 

 cimens from this last hill, there were a few plates of mica in addition 

 to the other three minerals (No. 25). 



Among them I found one which seems interesting, and the composi- 

 tion of which resembles an analogous rock found at Chinnapatam, to 

 be described hereafter. 



It resembles red porphyry, but it has nothing porphyritic in its struc- 

 ture, being composed of red foliated felspar — fracture rather shining — 

 honey-combed with numerous small cavities, which are filled with a 

 yellow substance, some of them having a micaceous, brilliant, metallic 

 powder, strongly magnetic. In this specimen I saw no quartz which, 

 however, is found in the rock of Chinnapatam, (No. 26). 



Baitmungalum.—Kt this place we all were agreeably surprised and 

 delighted, at being treated at breakfast with grapes, peaches and 

 apples, of an exquisite flavour, the produce of the country about* — the 

 climate being so mild, and the appearance of these European dainties 

 on the table, carried us irresistibly, in imagination, to Europe, and me, 

 in particular, to dear Italy. 



* From Bangalore or Palamanair 1 



