364 



Geology of the Deccan, 



[Oct, 



digging for earth in the banks of a rivulet ; learning that they used 

 it to wash their clothes, I obtained a quantity ; lixiviated the earth, 

 boiled down the lixivium, and on cooling obtained a large crop of 

 crystals, which the usual tests indicated to be carbonate of soda. I 

 only met with one other bed, although I have no doubt they are nu- 

 merous. At Kalbar Lonee, twelve miles east of Poona and two miles 

 south of the Mota-Mola river, within an area of 200 yards, a constant 

 moisture and partial absence of vegetation is observed. An efflores- 

 cent matter appears on the surface every morning, which is carefully 

 swept up and sold to washermen : it is carbonate of soda. The occur- 

 rence of salts in the trap formation did not escape Captain Danger- 

 field's notice. He states that " the banks of the Nerbuddah (Nerma- 

 da) near Mundleysir, consist of an upper thin bed of vegetable mould j 

 a central bed, chiefly of indurated marie, strongly impregnated with 

 muriate of soda ; and a lower bed, of a reddish hue, with much car- 

 bonate of soda. In the dry season these salts form a thick efflores- 

 cence on the surface of the bank."* Saltpetre is manufactured in 

 Dukhun, not from nitrated soils, but from the scrapings of old walls. 

 I have also seen specimens of muriate of ammonia obtained by the 

 brick and tile makers in burning dung, stable and other refuse matters 

 in their kilns. 



Ores. — No other ore than that of iron is found in Dukhun. It is 

 only worked, to my knowledge, at Mahabuleshwur, at the source of the 

 Krishna river. It occurs as a nodular hematite, associated, I under- 

 stand (for I have not been at the spot myself), with laterite.f This ore 

 produces the celebrated Wootz steel. 



* Malcolm's Central India, p. 324. 



t This association of nodular hcematite with laterite is sufficiently intelligible, when we 

 recollect the manner in which the latter rock is very frequently formed, according to 

 the undoubted testimony of Dr. Benza (see Madras Journal, No. 13, p. 255), viz. from 

 the decomposition of the former. The distinguished geologist whom we have named, 

 with true philosophical caution, forbore from giving the name of laterite to the decayed 

 haematite of the Neilgherries and Northern Circars, because observation has not yet de- 

 termined fully whether that peculiar mineral product " is a rock per se, or only the result 

 of a modification in the structure of the metallic ore" ; or, as at the Red Hills near 

 Madras, a conglomerate (Madras Journal No. 12, p. 110) : he, therefore, termed the de- 

 cayed haematite lateritic iron ore. That a very great proportion of the so-called late- 

 rite owes its origin to these two sources there is no doubt ; and, to use the language of 

 Dr. Benza, " it is a common mistake to apply the name to decomposed rocks of the 

 primitive class, and to any other that have a red, ochreous colour, and softish consistence." 

 Evidence appears to be still wanting to prove that it ever is found as a distinct formation ; 

 all the facts recently observed go to show that it is nothing but decomposed haematite, or 

 ether rock ; or that it is a conglomerate.— Editor Madras Journal. 



