la37J 



Geology of the Deccan. 



349 



Those of a fissure-like character might have resulted from the up- 

 heaving of the beds of trap from below the sea, and the consequent pro- 

 bable fracture of the surface ; but the same explanation will not apply- 

 to those valleys associated with the preceding, broad, flat, and mar- 

 gined by scarped mountains, which valleys are as wide at their origin 

 at the crest of the ghats, and at the sources of the rivers which run 

 through them, as in any part of their length. 



Terraces.T-As the rise from the Konkun to the Dukhun is 

 by terraces, so the declination of the country eastward from 

 the ghats is by terraces ; but these occur at much longer 

 intervals, are much lower, particularly in the eastern parts, 

 and escape the eye of the casual observer. In the neighbourhood 

 of Munchur, on the Goreh river, there are five terraces rising 

 above each other from the east to the west, so distinctly marked, 

 that the parallelism of their planes, to each other and to the horizon, 

 gives them the appearance of being artificial. An artificial character 

 also pervades the form of many insulated hills : some of which viewed 

 laterally, appear to have an extensive table-land on the summit, but 

 seen endways look like truncated cones. Conoidal frustra in the 

 Gawelghur range have been already noticed. Other insulated hills 

 are triangular in their superficial planes, as the forts of Teekoneh(three- 

 cornered) and Loghur. 



Escarpments. — Stupendous escarpments are occasionally met 

 with in the ghats. In these instances the numerous strata, 

 instead of being arranged in steps, form a continuous wall. 

 At the Ahopeh pass, at the source of the Goreh river, the 

 wall or scarp is fully one thousand and five hundred feet high;* 

 indeed, on the north-west face of the hill fort of Hurreechun- 

 durghur, the escarpment can scarcely be less than double that 

 height. On the other hand, the steps are sometimes effaced, and a 

 hill has a rapid slope. This originates in a succession of beds of the 

 softer amygdaloids, without any basaltic interstralification ; their supe- 

 rior angles disintegrate, and a slope results. But most usually three 

 or four beds of amygdaloid are found between two strata of compact 

 basalt ; the former disintegrates, leaving a slope, which is not unfre- 

 quently covered with forest trees, forming a picturesque belt : the ba- 

 saltic scarp remains entire, or it may be partially buried by the debris 



* Plate 9, fig 1. 



