102 



On the Fossils of the Eastern Portion 



[July 



patam and Goa, and I have traced it in the deep and narrow valleys 

 of Coorg, at various heights, from the level of the sea to several thou- 

 sand feet above it ; but as in all those places it rests on syenite or other 

 granitic rocks, from the decomposition of which, in situ, there is much 

 reason to suppose that this remarkable formation is derived, no inference 

 as to its age can be drawn from these facts. At Colter, however, and 

 other places on the coast of the great basaltic district, it rests on the 

 basalt, forming the summits of the hills, or an external layer over the 

 trap which constitutes the body of the hill. This superposition is exhi- 

 bited in ravines passing through the laterite, or where that rock has 

 thinned off so much, that it can be separated from the basalt below, which 

 has most commonly a stratified arrangement, often highly inclined and 

 parallel to the precipitous face of the hill. It has also been observed 

 above the ghats, and in the table-land of the Deckan, between the Go- 

 da very and Manjera rivers, resting on basalt ; it is therefore probable, 

 that the trap has been protruded from below since the laterite assumed 

 its present form. It would be improper, in this place, to enter into any 

 details regarding a formation which extends over much of the Malay pen- 

 insula, Ceylon, the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, and Central 

 India. In different portions of these vast countries, several varieties of 

 this rock are met with, well deserving of attention, yet its general char- 

 acter and composition is the same over 30 degrees of longitude and 20 

 of latitude, and nowhere is any proof to be found of its being of volcanic 

 origin*, or the equivalent of certain European rocks, as supposed by Elie 

 de Beaumont. Under the name of laterite, however, very different rocks 

 have been included ; such as the ferruginous clays and sandy beds under- 

 lying the alluvium of the Irawady, near Rangoon, and a ferruginous con- 

 glomerate now form.ing in many places from decomposed and reconsoli- 

 dated laterite or syenite, and containing fragments of granite, and occa- 

 sionally enveloping a recent land shell. 



Besides these, a rock, apparently of igneous origin, has been occa- 

 sionally confounded with laterite, and in the diamond districts, is known 

 to the natives by the same name as is applied to that rock in the My- 

 sore. The thinner strata of the diamond sandstone of the Pennar have 

 been observed to be bent in a remarkable manner by the intrusion of 

 this rock ; and in other instances it had apparently escaped in a semifluid 

 state between the joints of the larger tables, carrying with it fragments 

 of the sandstone, whose angles are so well defined, that I thought I could 

 trace the very spot from which they had been broken off. Notwithstand- 



♦ Calder, Asiatic Researches, vol. xviii. Conybeare, Report to British Association. 



