452 



Sketches of the Meteorology, 8fc. 



[Ocr. 



XIX. — Extracts. 



Sketches of the Meteorology, Geology, Agriculture, Botany, and 

 Zoology of the Southern Mahratia Country. — By Alexander Turn- 

 bull Christie, m. d. 



(From the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.) 

 (Continued from page 193 of the preceding number.) 



Geognosy. — The geognostical arrangement of the rocks of the Indian 

 peninsula is everywhere very simple ; and a great uniformity prevails 

 throughout the whole country, from Cape Comorin, even as far as the 

 Ganges. The same formation, in many instances, extends uninter- 

 ruptedly, for several hundred miles in the same direction ; and, conse- 

 quently, that great variety, and those frequent changes within a short 

 distance, which are so conspicuous in Britain, are seldom met with 

 among the rocks of India. 



The principal rocks in the peninsula of India are granite, transition 

 rocks, old red sandstone, trap rocks, and, superior to all these, a ferru- 

 ginous claystone. The Darwar district, and the adjoining coast, contain 

 specimens of all these rocks; and will, therefore, serve as an example 

 of the general geognostical structure of the peninsula. 



Granite. — This appears to be the most abundant rock in the penin- 

 sula of India. It stretches, with few interruptions, from Cape Comorin 

 to beyond Nagpore and Ellichipore, occupying a great, part of the Car- 

 natic, Malabar, and Mysore, nearly the whole of the Nizam's domi- 

 nions, and a large part of Barar.* It is also met with in many places 

 still further north, namely, in Malwaf, Bundelcund|, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Delhi§; and Lieut. Gerard found some of the highest of 

 the Himalaya mountains to be principally composed of it||. 



All the eastern part of the Southern Mahralta Dooab, from the Sun- 

 gum^" of the Kistnah and Tumboodra, to near the British frontier, con- 

 sists of granite ; but west of that, namely, in the British territory, it 

 only occurs occasionally, protruding in a few spots through the schists 

 by which it is covered. It also occurs in the southern parts of the 

 district; the Mysore granite extending, in some places, as far as, but 

 sddom much beyond, the frontier. But although it be met with in 

 comparatively small quantity in this district ; yet, considering its very 

 gi-eat importance as connected with the general geognosy of India, I 



* I state this principally upon the authority of the late Dr. Voysey, whom I met at 

 Hyderabad, in 1823 ; and I myself travelled through a great part of the Nizam's domi- 

 nions. 



•f Vide Malcolm's Central India, vol. ii. Appendix. 



+ Vide Transactions of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, vol. iv. p. 26. 



\ Vide Transactions of the Geological Society of London, New Series, vol. i. p. 1, 2. 



|| Ibid. p. 127. et seq. 



ft Sungum signifies the angle of land formed by the junction of two rivers. 



