360 



Geology of the Deccan. 



[Oct. 



temples, pedestals to the wooden columns in their mansions, and slabs 

 for inscriptions. The bulls of the size of life, always placed before 

 temples of Mahadeo, are cut out of this variety at Raseen, Wurwund, 

 and the renowned Boleshwur. Some of the pedestals in the gateway 

 of the Mankeswur palace at Tehnboornee look like mirrors. In the 

 temple at Pooluj, south of Punderpoor, there is a slab six or seven 

 feet long and two and a half broad, covered with an inscription in the 

 Kanree language ; and in Punderpoor the streets are paved apparently 

 with the same basalt. At Jehoor and near Ahmednuggur is found a 

 compact kind like the last, but not so heavy. It has a crystalline 

 character and sharp fracture, and has angular siliceous pebbles im- 

 bedded : an occasional pebble is loose in its cell. In the Happy 

 Valley near Ahmednuggur the basalt is compact and smooth, with 

 reddish flat transparent crystals imbedded. It opposes a feeble resist- 

 ance to the hammer, and flies into fragments, some of which have 

 right angles. The basalt, even of the true columns, is not of a uniform 

 texture in different localities : at times it is blackish or gray, and very 

 small, granular or compact ; at others, earthy and ferruginous, parti- 

 cularly externally. The basis of the amygdaloids is clay, with more 

 or less hornblende disseminated : they embrace the cellular, porphyri- 

 tic, hard, friable, and decomposing. I endeavoured to class them 

 agreeably to the prevalence of quartz, chalcedony, lime, mesotype, or 

 stilbite, as imbedded minerals, but found the method of very limited 

 application. Sometimes one mineral only is imbedded, occasionally 

 two, and often the whole. 



In Hurreechundurghur quartz amygdaloid prevails : at Aklapoor 

 on the Mool river it is characterized by mesotype, that mineral being 

 imbedded in large masses, and the radii (six or seven inches) are the 

 longest I have seen. At Nandoor it is porphyritic with minute crys- 

 talline specks of lime: near Ahmednuggur is seen a cellular, indeed 

 spongiform kind, which is hard, and the cells are empty. A small 

 cellular and pisiform variety is found in the wonderful cave temples of 

 Ellora, and some of the sculptured figures appear as if marked by the 

 smallpox. This observation is partially applicable to the Boodh and 

 Hindoo cave temples of Elephanta, Salsette, Karleh, Joonur, the 

 Naneh ghat, and the Adjunteh ghat ; all of which are excavated in 

 basaltic or amygdaloidal strata. The Stilbite or Heulandite amygda- 

 loid is of very common occurrence; but the most prevalent kind is 

 that in which all the minerals noticed above are associated. The 

 stone usually selected for building is of various shades of gray or 

 bluish gray ; has hornblende disseminated in very small crystals; 



