1837.] 



Geology of the Deccan, 



353 



in the scarps of a moun tain running down into the Konkun, and seen 

 from the Naneh ghat, about three miles distant. Here the Giant's 

 Causeway in Ireland is brought to mind ; but the scale of the mountain 

 is infinitely more magnificent, being fully 4000 feet high. There is a 

 double row of columns, but from their inaccessible situation, I could 

 only examine them through my telescope, and cannot testify, there- 

 fore, to their perfect development. 



Captain Dangerfield only once speaks of columns. They lie about 

 a mile from the Nerbudda(Nermada), between Mundleysir and Mhysir, 

 at 696 feet above the sea : they are either vertical or highly inclined. 

 General Hardwick lias published a lithographic sketch of them.* I 

 have already stated that Dr. Voysey found columnar basalt in many 

 places in the Gawelghur range. 



Schistose structure.— Following the preceding formation, I may 

 mention, that in some few places a schistose structure was met with ; 

 but its extent was limited to a few yards, the lamella? were vertical, 

 from an inch to three inches in thickness, being perfect tables, with 

 parallel bounding planes. The rock in which this structure occurs, is 

 a simple, indurated, gray clay, which flies into fragments under slight 

 blows from the hammer. At Dytneh near Serroor some very perfect 

 specimens have led the inhabitants to connect mystic influences with 

 so artificial a development of inorganic matter. The spot is daubed 

 with oil and red lead, and venerated. 



Basalt en boules. — Another characteristic feature is the general dif- 

 fusion of those rounded or oval masses of compact basalt, with con- 

 centric layers like the coats of an union, which the French geologists 

 denominate " Basalt en boules," and ourselves, nodular basalt. 



These concretions are usually found at the base of hills, buried in 

 the debris from the decomposing strata ; but in the Konkun, between 

 Choke and Campolee (the latter at the foot of the Bore ghat), two 

 villages on the high road between Bombay and Poona, I met with them 

 lying on the surface over a considerable area. They occur in a similar 

 manner on the table-land of the ball-practice hill at Poona. At 

 Koothool (already mentioned), in the slope of the hill, and in the 

 debris at its base, and along the edge of the table-land near Paubul, 

 they are abundant; but the finest specimens are seen near the village 

 of Karkullah, thirty miles north-west of Poona, associated with hojrt- 



* Malcolm's Central India, Appendix, p. 323. 



