1837.] 



Geology of the Deccan* 



345 



Stratification. — Previously to entering into descriptive details, 

 I will state, in a few words, that the whole of the country 

 comprised within my boundaries is composed of distinctly 

 stratified trap rocks, without the intervention of the rocks of 

 any other formation. Whether at the level of the sea, or at the 

 elevation of 4500 feet, in all and every part, beds of basalt 

 and amygdaloid are found alternating, whose superior and inferior 

 planes preserve a striking parallelism to each other, and, as far as the 

 eye can judge, to the horizon. Barometrical measurements and the 

 course of rivers indicate a declination of the country to the east-south- 

 east and south-east. From the town of Goreh, latitude 19°-03 and 

 longitude 74°-05, on the Goreh river, following a mean course for the 

 river until it falls into the Beema, and subsequently, continuing a 

 mean course for the Beema until its junction with the Seena river, the 

 distance is about 200 miles, and the declination 671 feet : there may 

 therefore be a trifling dip of the strata ; but as a succession of low 

 terraces occur in that distance, the apparent horizontal position of the 

 strata may be unaffected by the above difference of level. 



Dr. MacCulloch, describing the over lying or trap rocks, says, 

 44 these masses are generally irregular, but sometimes bear indistinct 

 marks of stratification."* As Dr. MacCulloch's language implies the 

 rare occurrence of stratification, instead of its being a distinctive feature, 

 at least of the Indian branch of the trap family, I deem it necessary to 

 quote the few authors who have written on Indian geology, in con- 

 firmation of the fact I have stated.f 



* Classification of Rocks, p. 466. 



+ " These mountains (the Vindhya range), like every other in Mahva, appear to be 

 distinctly stratified, consisting of alternate, horizontal beds of basalt or trap and amygda- 

 loid, Fourteen of these beds may in general be reckoned, the thinnest at the top, and 

 rapidly increasing in thickness as they lower in position, the basalt stratum at the bottom 

 being about 200 feet thick." A^ain, at page 327, he says : " In the upper plains of Malwa 

 every point of view presents the same uniform and distinctly streaked appearance noticed 

 in the Vindhya range. ' ' — Captain Dangerjield, in Geological Notices of Malwa, in Appendix 

 No. 2. to Sir John Malcolm's Central India, pp. 322, 327. 



Dr. Voysey, in a paper on the Geological and Mineralogical Structure of the vicinity of 

 Nagpoor, says : " From the summit of the hill of Sitabaldi the difference in the outline 

 of the rocks eastward is very perceptible. The flattened summits and long flat outline, 

 with the numerous gaps of the trap hills, are exchanged for the ridgy, peaked, sharp out- 

 line of the primary rocks."— Physical Class of the Asiatic Researches, p. 127. 



In a second paper in the same work, on some petrified shells in the Gawelghur range of 

 trap mountains, extending for 165 miles along the left bank of the Tapty river, from its 

 source to the city of Boorhanpoor, he describes the principal part of the range as formed 

 of " compact basalt very much resembling that of the Giant's Causeway. It is found 



