1840.] 



of tlie Great Basaltic District of India. 



75 



it was not discovered in situ. A stratified rock was however found in 

 the neighbourhood, resembling some specimens of the argillaceous lime- 

 stone of the diamond districts, but consisting of a compact whitish 

 chert, which contained Paludinse, and the finest specimens of Gyrogo- 

 nites (Plate, fig. 1). Night prevented the connexions of this rock 

 from being determined : the strata were, however, ascertained to be of 

 considerable extent, and to be much buried in the soil ; there were also 

 numerous fragments of siliceous rock, partly converted into a black bitu- 

 minous flint, or a coarse quartzose rock, partially altered into calcedony, 

 by which most of the shells were also replaced. 



The masses of red chert protruding from the basalt contained, besides 

 the Testacea, small portions of silicified wood, and what I consider ta 

 be the fragment of a bone, and of the tooth of a mammiferous animal. 

 The specimens, however, are too imperfect to admit of any certainty as 

 to what they really are ; but it is not unlikely that such remains should 

 occur, and I therefore do not suppress what may lead to a more success- 

 ful inquiry 



On descending towards Hutnoor, granite, presenting a concentric, 

 ligniform surface, from the unequal decomposition of the quartz and 

 felspar, occurs at a short distance from the fossils*. With this excep- 

 tion, the basalt continues of the same character as before, and fragments 

 of red or deep black chert, containing Paludinae, are found in the beds 

 of torrents ; and at Hutnoor they occur in the trap. There is much 

 calcareous matter mixed with the soil, or collected in nodules, and it 

 appears to be derived from the lime contained in the basalt, or between 

 its laminae. On the pioneers attached to our camp penetrating, at EI- 

 choda, through some strata of tabular basalt to obtain water for the 

 troops, seams of a pure white, pulverulent lime were found between the 

 layersf. At Hutnoor fragments of a compact blue limestone, not to be 

 distinguished from that of the diamond districts, were collected ; and 

 the rock to which they belonged, was found in the descent from the first 

 of the three principal terraces by which the road leads to the northern 

 base of the hills. The strata were much inclined and broken, but the 

 forest was so thick, that I could not trace them for any distance. After 

 descending to the second terrace, the surface rock suddenly changes to 

 a white, horizontally-stratified limestone, almost entirely composed of 

 large bivalve shells, the edges of which decomposing more slov/ly than- 



* A similar appearance has been observed at the foot of the Nirmul pass, at the iron 

 mines of Deemdoortee, and in Bundlecund. 



+ The same was observed in Eandleeuad by Captaia Franklin. (Asiatic^ Eesearches, 

 vol. xviii.) 



