80 



Ga the Fossils of the Eastern Portion 



[July 



but above the principal hot spring, some of the most remarkable effects 

 of igneous action in changing a stratified rock, are exhibited. The prin- 

 cipal part of the small hill is a whiti-h limestone, the stratification of 

 which is obliterated, and the rock projects in irregular masses full of 

 cavities passing deep into the mass of limestone, which is partly crystal- 

 line, and in many places mixed or coated with jasper and quartz crystals. 

 Much calcareous tufr(" Kunkur") is associated with these altered rocks, 

 and it fills up many of the cavities ; it is also found in the divisions of 

 the nodular basalt, and masses of it, scattered over the surrounding 

 countrj'-, are the only remains of springs which have been long closed up. 

 Some portions of the rock had the appearance, on the surface, of a 

 semifused brick, and had assumed something of a regular arrangement, 

 while the centre was composed of the limestone little altered. Large 

 masses of porous scoria also lay about. 



The principal springs issue at the foot of the rising ground, where the 

 rock is most remarkably altered. Their temperature (87°) was the same 

 as that of Urjunah, on the other side of the Pindee hills, and it did not 

 vary during the hot and cold months of 1831 and 1833. The water 

 of this and many other springs is said to be equally copious at ail seasons, 

 covering the neighbouring country with the richest vegetation, when all 

 beyond is a black and parched waste. On issuing fiom the rock, the 

 water is sensibly acid, and in one spring, carbonic gas escapes with 

 the water. It is remarkably agreeable to the taste, and sparkles in the 

 glass, as well as where the stream passes over rapids. It contains a little 

 muriate of soda, a minute quantity of sulphates, and much carbonate of 

 lime in solution, which is deposited on boiling, and in the bed of the 

 rivulet, where it has farmed considerable masses of rock chiefly composed 

 of the petrified vegetation of the banks. So quickly is this deposit 

 formed near some little falls, that shells appear to be imprisoned and 

 entombed while adhering to the face of the rock ; and tufts of grass are 

 encrusted with sediment while their roots are still alive. If any doubt 

 remained as to the nature of the nodular limestone, known in India by 

 the name of " Kunkur," it would be removed by the sight here exhi' 

 bited of all gradations of this substance actually forming, and varying from 

 pulverulent lime to a crystalline rock. The water is probably derived 

 from a great depth, the springs having, as already stated, the same 

 temperature as those of Urjunah, and not being materially diminished by 

 the failure of the annual rains. 



Sandstone forms the surface rock in different directions over the sur- 

 rounding country, but I had an opportunity of examining it carefully 

 only at Won, eight miles north of Kair, its junction with the limestone 



