1837.] 



Geology of the Deccan. 



361 



works much easier than some of the compacter basalts, but takes a 

 good polish. The entire temples of Koorul and Boleahwur, with 

 their innumerable alto-relievo figures and laboured ornaments, are 

 built of this variety of trap, which is, in fact, a greenstone, although 

 less crystalline than the European rock. There is a variety selected 

 carelessly, also used in building, which has the structure and nearly 

 the external characters of the last, but which, in weathering, exfo- 

 liates, and the buildings fall to ruin ; such is the case with the great 

 temple in Hurreechundurghur. 



I must not omit mention of two remarkable rocks which, as far as 

 my reading extends, have not been noticed by authors on European geo- 

 logy. The first is an amygdaloid in which compact stilbite is im- 

 bedded in a vermicular form. One of its localities is the insulated hill 

 on which stands the temple of Parwuttee in the city of Poona* ; and 

 it is met with in many other places. Captain Dangerfield observed 

 the same peculiar stratum near Sagar. He says, " There occurs an 

 " amygdaloidal or prophyritic rock consisting of a compact basis of 

 * e wacke, in which are imbedded in great abundance small globular 

 " or uniform masses, but more usually long curved cylindrical or 

 " vermiform crystals of zeolite."f 



The other rock occurs as a thick stratum of amygdaloid at the ele- 

 vation of four thousand feet, in the hill forts of Hurreechundurghur 

 and Poorundhur ; and in the bed of the Goreh river at one thousand 

 and eight hundred feet, near Serroor. The matrix resembles that of 

 the other amygdaloids, but the mineral imbedded is a glassy felspar in 

 tables resembling Cleavelandite, crossing each other at various an- 

 gles, and so abundant as to occupy a moiety of the mass. I have only 

 remarked it in the above localities, and it does not appear to have come 

 under the notice of the gentlemen I have so often quoted in other 

 parts of the peninsula. 



Minerals.— Minerals are not uniformly dispersed in Dukhun. In 

 one part quartz predominates, in another chalcedony ; and these are 

 more or less associated with jaspers, agates, hornstones, heliotrope, and 

 semi-opal or cachalong. In other places particular members of the 

 zeolite family prevail, nearly to the exclusion of the siliceous class j 

 and elsewhere there is a diminution of minerals amounting almost to 

 privation. Amethyst quartz is rare in Dukhun ; when met with it 

 constitutes the crystal, lining the interior of geodes of agate. I have 



* See Plate 9, fig. 2. near to the city of Poona. t Cential India, p. pd, 



