382 



Mr. James Bird on the Country 



[Oct. 



below. The path lies on the right-hand side between vertical columns 

 of quartz rock; and the breadth of the passage is only sufficient to 

 allow of one person going at a time. The opening leading into this 

 from above is so low that it was necessary to creep on our hands and 

 knees to get through. The loose blocks of rock wedged between the 

 perpendicular columns, and forming its roof, hung over our heads like 

 the sword over Damocles, keeping us in continual apprehension that 

 the frail means of support giving way we might be crushed by their 

 fall. 



On descending to the water edge the cataract is seen to less 

 advantage than when viewed from above, the rainbow appearance 

 being no longer observable. The echoing noise of the falls, how- 

 ever, is grand and impressive ; and the large square masses of stone 

 which have been hurled below by the rains of the monsoon, or the 

 roots of the jungle plants penetrating fissures of the rock, lead us 

 to think on the slow and silent influence of time midst this depth of 

 solitude. 



The scenery about the cataract is worthy of admiration ; and, in 

 concluding this account, I may venture to say, that if a traveller's 

 expectations are not fulfilled by a visit to the spot, his curiosity will at 

 least be gratified. 



Mineralogy of the country. — The elevated table-land of the Dek- 

 kan is exclusively composed of rocks belonging to the fletz-trap 

 formation. The hills which rise on the western ghats as a base have 

 conical or tabular forms, and are sometimes distributed in long ridges 

 or terraces which run east-north-east. 



At the openings in the hills west of Punah, known by the name of the 

 Ghats, and which are the passages from the lower land of the Konkan 

 into the higher land of the Dekkan, these tabular forms are grand and 

 beautiful. They are generally triangular shaped, and insulated from 

 each other by broad and deep ravines, of which thn perpendicular 

 descent cannot be less than twelve or thirteen hundred feet. 



The rock composing these tables is compact basalt of a black 

 colour, in which hornblend predominates. 



About Punah, and further south-eastwards, the rocks are generally 

 amygdaloidal, and become lighter in colour the farther they are re- 

 moved from the western entrance. This amygdaloid is in no respect 

 different from the toad-stone of extra tropical climates. It shews 

 embedded masses of chalcedony, zeolites, and green earth ; and in the 

 neighbourhood of water courses, at the depth of five-and-twenty or 



