1840.] 



of the Great Basaltic District of India. 



95 



■where the rapid changes of formations, so common in Europe, are quite 

 unknown. 



The speculations of Elie de Beaumont on the age of these mountains 

 is founded on negative evidence and analogies which appear to me to 

 have little weight ; nor can I consider the remarks of Dr. Benza, founded 

 on his excellent researches on the geology of the Neilghe.rry mountains, 

 as more conclusive. The non-occurrence of stratified rocks and of 

 organic remains in a high granitic tahle land, affords no proof that these 

 mountains have notheen recently elevated ; and the plentiful occurrence of 

 ferruginous sandstone, containing brown coal, lignite, and mineral copal, 

 at the foot of the Travancore mountains, show that tliese inferences have 

 been too hastily drawn, when such gigantic generalizations were to be 

 established. 



Age of the Diamond Sandstone and Argillaceous Limestone. 



With regard to the age of the diamond sandstone and argillaceous 

 limestones, my own conviction is, that they belong to the more ancient 

 secondary, or even transition rocks ; an opinion, which is not at all con- 

 tradicted by iheir frequent occurrence in horizontal strata, as they could 

 not have been deposited in the situations in which they are now found. 

 The facts I have stated, will enable others to estimate the correctness of 

 an impression founded on the structure, geological relations, and occa- 

 sional nearly vertical position of the strata. On this subject, I would 

 express no decided opinion, but recommend an examination of the junc- 

 tion of these formations with the stratified and unstratified primary rocks, 

 with a view to this question. 



The sandstones and limestones of Bundlecund and Malwa correspond 

 in many particulars with those of the south of India, and have been con- 

 sidered by all writers as belonging to the same form^ations. The sand- 

 stone, Major Franklin considers to be the same as the saliferous sand- 

 stone of England* ; to which it has been objected, that the salt diffused 

 through the soil of Bundlecund may not be derived from this source, as 

 it has never been discovered in that rock. I have also ascertained that 

 salt occurs in all the formations of India, from granite to recent alluvium. 

 I have, indeed, never met with a saline spring in the sandstone, but this 

 I comiider to be accidental, that rock being generally placed in inacces- 

 sible situations. 1 have, however, found thin seams of salt, interstrati- 

 fied with the upper schistose layers of the argillaceous limestone, in the 



• Geol, Trans., 3nd Series, vol, iii„ Part I. 



