92 



On the Fossils of the Eastern Po?'tion 



[July 



explosion or subsidence happened from which the great ' depression 

 took its origin. 



From Lonar the basaltic district extends to the south as far as Bedi-r ; 

 to the west, 200 miles to Bombay ; and northward, to the banks of the 

 Nerbudda, near the ancient cities of Indoor and Mhysir, reported to 

 have been buried at a remote period under volcanic eruptions. To the 

 east, the great basaltic country of Berar extends as far as Nagpoor ; and 

 the Sichel range passes in a S. E. by E direction to the confluence of 

 the Wurdah and Godavery, and towards the eastern ghats. Hot springs 

 and streams loaded with carbonate of lime, occur along the line of eleva* 

 lion of these mountains at Mahoor, Urjunah, Kair, Byorah, and at 

 Badrachellum, a short distance above the pass through which the Goda- 

 very reaches the alluvial plains of the coast. The spring of Byoi'ah is 

 surrounded by sandstone and limestone rocks, and carbonic acid escapes 

 with the water, which has a temperature of IIO'* and holds lime in solu- 

 tion*. That of Badrachellum, which rises in the sandy bed of the Go- 

 davery, has a temperature of 140"^, and contains sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 also sulphates and muriates of soda and lime. A sandstone resembling 

 the cement of the Bangnapilly diamond breccia and the rock of Won, 

 protrudes from the sandy bed of the river near the spring ; and granite, 

 basalt, and a red schist resembling that so common in the diamond dis- 

 tricts, occur in the neighbourhood ; diamonds also are occasionally found. 

 Other hot springs are reported to exist in this line of elevation ; but 

 that wild and little-known country, far removed from the residence of 

 any European, must long remain in a great measure unexplored. 



The facts stated in the preceding pages prove that the basaltic rocks, 

 by which so much of Western and Central India are covered, are more 

 recent than the sandstone and argillaceous limestone of the basins of the 

 Pennar, Kistnah, Godavery, and of the mountains south of the Nerbud- 

 da ; and that, notwithstanding the frequent occurrence of these rocks in 

 a horizontal position, they have been subjected to violent operations, 

 which have in many instances elevated the strata and remarkably altered 

 the rocks themselves. It also appears, from observations made on the 

 borders of the trap districts, and in other places where the primary rocks 

 and the sandstones and limestones are not entirely concealed, that the 

 basalt has burst forth from numerous fractures in these formations, pro- 

 bably simultaneously, although often forming insulated masses. It is 

 possible, that more than one period of eruptive violence may have oc- 

 curred between the era of the formation of the greenstone dykes, so 



* Jouraal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. it,, p. 397. 



