1836.] 



of the Southern Muhratta Country. 



469 



and it is no where stratified. Sometimes it forms table-shaped masses 

 on the summits of the ghauts; and, where it is split into separate 

 masses on the coast, these have sometimes an obscure cuboidal form. 

 It may be said, however, to have no distinct structure, and merely to 

 form enormous overlying masses, which extend over a very large part 

 of the peninsula of India. 



In some places the claystone contains numerous small nodules of clay 

 iron-stone, which seldom exceed the size of a walnut. These are picked 

 up by the natives, and are smelted by means of charcoal in a very small 

 rude furnace, blown by the hand-bellows, common all over India, and 

 still used in Europe by the Gypsies. If any profit can be obtained from 

 such a very rude and tedious process, to what good account might not 

 the rich ores of hfematite and magnetic iron be put ? 



Many of the hills composed of this rock are nearly devoid of vege- 

 tation ; their surface being bare and smooth, and of a red or black 

 colour. The soil produced by its disintegration is not very productive ; 

 and so liable is it, in some places, to consolidate, when deprived of its 

 moisture, that, if it be not constantly cultivated, it soon becomes hard 

 and bare, and checks all vegetation.* 



I have seen no secondary rocks in India above the old red sandstone, 

 except the trap and ferruginous claystone. Dr. Adams mentions, that 

 he found rolled pieces of coal in the bed of the Towa river, which falls 

 into the Nerbuddaf ; but he did not see the coal in situ ; and the exist- 

 ence of the coal formation, therefore, in the peninsula of India, still 

 forms an interesting subject of enquiry for future observers. 



Cotton Ground. — Immense deposites of a black alluvial clay are met 

 with in various parts of India. It is denominated cotton ground, from 

 the circumstance of that plant being always cultivated upon it. It is 

 the regur soil of the ryuts. It forms large plains throughout the whole 

 of the Deccan ; some of them sufficiently extensive to bring to mind 

 the descriptions given by travellers of the Pampas of South America, 

 or the Steppes of Russia. 



Its depth extends from two or three to twenty or thirty feet. Its 

 colour is greyish black or brownish black. In many places it is per- 

 fectly unmixed with any foreign ingredient. In other instances it con- 

 tains nodules of calcarious tufa J, agates, calcedony§, and occasionally 



* It is to this passage that reference is made at page 107 of the last 

 number of this Journal, in the essay on the geological characters of 

 the laterite.— R. C. 



■r Vide Memoirs of the Wcrnerian Society, vol. iv. p. 61. 



% This substance is well known by the name of Kunker in India. 



\ The same circumstance is noticed by Dr. Adams in regard to the black soil of the 

 Nerbudda valley, Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. iv. p. 02. 



