^90 
BED CONTAINING FOSSIL SHELLSi 
On the south side, they rise abruptly from the exten- 
sive plain of Berar, the average height of which is 1000 
feet above the level of the sea, and tower above it to the 
height of 2000 and 3000 feet. The descent to the bed of 
the Taptee is equally rapid, although the northern is less 
elevated than the southern side of the range. The outline 
of the land is generally flat, but much broken by ravines, 
and by groupes of flattened summits, and isolated conoidal 
frusta; The summits and the flat land are for the most part 
remarkably destitute of trees, but they are thickly covered 
with long grass. In the ravines and passes of the moun- 
tains the forest is very thick,^ and in many places almost 
impervious. The inhabitants are principally Goauds, whose 
language, manners and customs, differ remarkably from 
those of the Hindoos^ At present their chief occupation is 
huntings and cultivating small patches of land, which pro- 
duce a coarse rice and millet. In former years the culti- 
vation must have been very extensive, since there are the 
ruins of numerous hill-forts and villages, which derived 
their chief subsistence from the surrounding lands. Many 
opportunities are afforded of studying the nature of this 
mountainous range in the numerous ravines and precipitous 
descents which abound in every part. A Wernerian would 
not hesitate in pronouncing them to be of the newest floetz 
trap formation ; a Huttonian would call them overlying 
rocks ; and a modern geologist would pronounce that they 
owed their origin to submarine volcanoes. 
I shall not give them any other name than the general 
one of Trap-rocks,^but proceed to describe them, and state, 
with diffidence,^ the inferences which I think obviously pre- 
sent themselves, on an attentive study of their phenomena. 
1. The principal part of the whole range is formed of 
compact basalt, very much resembling that of the Gianf s 
Causeway, It is found columnar in many places ; and at 
