Dec. 1861.] 



Geology of the Neilgherries. 



247 



taining six sided prisms of the same mineral with pyramidal ter- 

 minations. 



Dodabett is the highest eminence of a group of hills, the part cf 

 a chain which traversing the Neilgherries, preserves about a North 

 East and South Westerly direction. 



The longer axis of the hills comprising the group, are parallel 

 to the direction of the chain, and these hills are connected 

 transversely by subordinate ridges. 



From Dodabett, spurs shoot out in every direction and shape, 

 their summits, however generally maintaining a rounded form. 

 The computed height of Dodabett is, 8,760 feet above the level of 

 the sea, an elevation conjectured by some to be only inferior to 

 that of the Himalayas with respect to the relative mountain alti- 

 tudes of the Indian Peninsula. I cannot however concur in this 

 view. 



Standing on the summit of Dodabett, and looking to the south, 

 I can discern a mountain range far away which seems to be at 

 least on a level with my own position. Taking this into considera- 

 tion as well as the non-existence of any material amount of re- 

 fraction in the clear atmosphere prevailing in these elevated regions, 

 I am led to conclude that the distant mountain is about as much 

 elevated above Dodabett as its base is below a tangent set off from 

 the earth's circumference at the point where Dodabett rises from it. 



Dodabett is so thickly covered with vegetation and soils, that the 

 geology of it is almost inaccessible, for .which reason I can say little 

 more than that a mass of garnet and granite rocks has been tra- 

 versed by traps. Near the Southern extremity of Dodabett, at a 

 remote period some convulsion separated the mountain from the 

 chain it belongs to, and left a deep incision. Advantage has been 

 taken of this hiatus in constructing the road from Coonoor to Oota- 

 camund. 



The rocks on both sides of the pass are identically the same, 

 and the configuration of the opposite precipices confirms the fact, 

 A list of the rocks and minerals noticed in Dodabett is subjoined,- 



