1837.] 



Geology of the Deccan. 



Organic Remains. — I did not meet with organic remains of any kind 

 whatever. Captain Couhhard* in Sagar, Major Franklin in 

 Bundelkand, and Captain Dangerfield in Malwa, were equally un- 

 successful. Dr. Voysey, indeed, mentions a bed of freshwater shells 

 in a stratum of indurated clay near the Tapty river in the Gawelghur 

 hills ; also at Medconta, two-thousand feet above the sea, on trapt ; but 

 these may have been recent, as he does not say to the contrary.^ Mr. 

 Calder, in his general observations on the geology of India, § says, 

 " But hitherto the most striking phoenoinenon in Indian geology is the 

 almost total absence of organic remains in the stratified rocks and in 

 the diluvial soil." As this must have been written with a knowledge 

 of Dr. Voysey's paper, it being in the same volume with his own, it is 

 probable he considers the shells recent.|| 



Thermal Springs. — Thermal springs do not exist in Dukhun within 

 my limits ; but there are three distant localities in the Konkun below 

 the ghats, where hot water gushes up from numerous crevices in trap 

 rocks over an extensive surface. 



The first is at Vizrabhaee, forty -eight miles north cf Bombay, where 

 the principal springs are in the bed of a river, and in the monsoon are 

 consequently lost in the swollen stream ; but in traversing the jungle 

 in the vicinity I have met with detached pools of hot water, which are 

 unaffected by the rains ; their temperature is very high. The second 



* Physical Class, Asiatic Researches, p. 81. 

 + Mr. Malcolmson discovered extensive deposits of fossil shells and seeds of chara>, 

 resting on granite and basalt, in the Sichel hills to the north of the Godavery river in 

 the territory of Hyderabad (See Madras Journal, No. 12, p. 203). That gentleman's 

 specimens collected in this locality, were sent home a considerable time ago, for examina- 

 tion by Mr. Lyell, from whom some account of them may shortly, it is hoped, be expect- 

 ed. Mr. Maleolmson's Notes on the Geology of the country between Hyderabad and Nagpur, 

 may be studied in conjunction with Col. Sykes' Memoir, as they treat of tracts between the 

 same parallels of latitude, the former commencing with the meridian of longitude where 

 the latter leaves off.— Editor Madras Journal. 



X Physical Class, Asiatic Researches, p. 194. ? Ibid., p. 16. 



|| It is necessary to observe that Colonel Sykes' Memoir, though published in the last 

 volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society, was presented to that association 

 so long ago as 23d January 1833. At the time it was written, therefore, the author wa3 

 not aware of the extensive deposits of organic remains since discovered in several places in 

 northern India. Thus, owing to the rare appearance of the bulky and costly volumes of 

 this admirable Society, the communications when given to the world have lost their 

 freshness and novelty, and, as in this instance, are behind hand in knowledge of recent 

 discoveries. If the publication of its transactions is to be extensively useful for the 

 advancement of geological science, the Society must descend from the dignity of a quarto, 

 to the utilitarian system of octavo journals,— Editor Madras Journal, 



