SB On ihe Fossils of the Eastern Portion [Jult 



and wavy lines of a turbid milky colour. Greenstone dikes are there 

 more common. The river flows over granite, which is intersected by 

 several dikes of greenstone, running more in a north and seuth direction 

 than those above referred to, and having many minute white crystals 

 diffused through their substance. The dikes project from 8 to 10 feet 

 above the granite, and are divided into rhomboidal masses by fissures, 

 in which lime is deposited. The bed of the river is covered by numerous 

 fi-agments of calcedonies, zeolites, and other minerals found in volcanic 

 rocks ; and they have been cemented into a more or less solid calcareous 

 conglomerate. The banks are composed of a black basaltic soil, from 

 the lower part of which, where it rests on the granite, as well as from 

 the divisions between the several layers of alluvium, thin slabs of a 

 clayey calc-tuff (Kunkur) project, and are connected above with portions 

 formed round the roots of plants, and below with other layers spread 

 out between the different strata of alluvial earth*. These appearances 

 sufficiently indicate the neighbourhood of the basaltic range of moun- 

 tains, distinguished in Arrowsmith's large map as the Sichel or Shesha 

 hills, but which are locally known by the name of the Nirmul range, from 

 the large town situated six miles from the difficult pass leading up the 

 steep escarpment presented by their southern face. None of the strati- 

 fied primary rocks are seen at the foot of these hills in the line of the 

 section ; but twenty miles to the east of Nirmul, and a few miles south 

 of the mountains, hornblende slate occurs, resting on granite and quartz 

 rock. 



Iron Ore, Mines, and Manufacture of the Steel, — The magnetic iron 

 ore, employed for ages in the manufacture of the Damask steel used by 

 the Persians for sword-blades, is obtained from this schist. The mines 

 I examined, are those of Deemdoortee, but the ore is extensively dis- 

 tributed. The minute grains or scales of iron are diffused in a sand- 

 stone-looking gneiss or micaceous schist, passing by insensible degrees 

 into hornblende slate, and sometimes containing amorphous masses of 

 quartz. The strata are much broken up and elevated, so that the dip 

 and direction are in no two places the same, and bear no relation to the 

 mountains to the north. 



Manufacture, Sfc. — The mines are mere holes dug through the thin 

 granitic soil, and the ore is detached without difficulty by small iron 

 crow-bars. It is then collected and broken on projecting masses of 



* Further details on this part of the route will be found in some notes explanatory of 

 a collection of specimens presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and published in 

 the Journal of that Institution for February, 1836. 



