235 



Statistics of tlie 



[No. 38 7 



intensity of this heat would have sufficed to obliterate all traces of 

 organic life, had any existed, but the conjectures are, that these an- 

 cient waters presented conditions incompatible with organic life, in 

 being strongly impregnated with red oxide of iron, as well as per- 

 haps being of a very high temperature : as to the period when the 

 whole of these superimposed rocks were upheaved, modern Geolo- 

 gists have assigned an early period of the tertiary epoch, as about 

 the most probable ; the inferences drawn from the discoveries of fossil 

 remains in India, have justified the conclusion of Dr. Falconer, and 

 others, that its continent was raised at this time, and that, not by 

 single efforts of subterranean expansion, but from several, with in- 

 tervening periods of long repose ; we have direct evidence in sup- 

 port of this, in the opposite parallel ranges, forming the northern 

 boundary of the Berar valley, where I found upon its summits, at a 

 height upwards of 2,000 feet, above the plains, feeble traces, yet per- 

 fectly distinct, of a species of tubular mollusk, in beds of silicious 

 matter, whilst along their bases, shiftings of level of a far more re- 

 cent period are apparent, in the upheaved beds of fresh water lakes, 

 now some two or three hundred feet above the valley. 



The most constantly occurring surface rock is the Ferrugenous 

 clay stone, in its various forms, the whole of which abounds with si- 

 licious minerals, by which we are led to surmise the vast quantities 

 of this substance, the ancient seas held in solution, silicates of the 

 hydrated aluminous variety, are the prevailing ones, diffused either 

 in minute particles throughout the rock generally, or occupying ve- 

 sicular cavities, and fissures, in pseudomorphous and isomorphous 

 masses ; it is by no means an unusual circumstance to find crystals 

 of zeolite, quartz, and calcspar, confusedly packed together in the 

 same cavity, the specific forms of whose crystals, do not seem affect- 

 ed by the presence of each other, but may be detected, though blend- 

 ed in one mass. 



For nearly two-thirds the way up the mountains, their structure 

 is principally formed of this reddish rock; above them are placed 

 wacken beds, with trap and basalt interposing ; calcareous matter 

 is as abundantly disseminated throughout these upper rocks, as the 

 silex is in the lower ones. The apex of all is generally found to 

 be stiff beds of black aluminous soil, deposited in long flat levels, 

 and doubtlessly the alluvial deposits of ancient waters. Towards 

 the lower levels of the Sircar, the substratum is found consisting of 



