SOIL OF BUNDLECUND. 
37 
most probably from trap and amygdaloid, which at one 
time had rested over the granite in the hills of Bundle- 
cund. 
It is probable the rock at Gerawiah, and the trap forma- 
tion observed on the hill of Callinger, and at Eesseram- 
gunge, have had their share in contributing to it. The 
vegetable matter with which the soil appears to be impreg- 
nated in a more than usual degree, may have been derived 
from extensive forests, which it is not difficult to conceive 
had flourished here at no very distant period ; and the suc- 
cessive increase of a heavy, plastic, moist soil, covering the 
wood with each return of the rainy season, had also pre- 
vented its complete decay. For the amelioration or im- 
provement of such a soil in Europe, the agriculturist would 
have recourse to lime, as rendering it drier, and reducing 
the vegetable matter which it contains, to a state more fit- 
ted for supplying the requisite pabulum to the growing 
plant. In India, however, such an expedient would not be 
attended with success, as calcareous earth, in this country, 
unites together into small masses, constituting what the na- 
tives term Kurikur^ and does not mingle with the other 
ingredients of the soil, unless siliceous sand exist in an un- 
usually large proportion. This isolation (if it may be so 
termed) of the calcareous earth, is very well seen in the 
Baitool Valley, in Berar, where the soil is essentially the 
same as the coarse black earth of Bundlecund. It is pro- 
bable that a mixture of sand would be attended with a 
beneficial result ; for wherever I have observed this com- 
bination from natural causes, the effect appears highly 
favourable. An illustration of this occurs in the route be- 
tween Callinger and Allahaba, via Turrawa^ where we 
approach the Jumna, and the alluvial sandy deposite of 
the river is seen mingling with the dark earth of the plain. 
From this union results a soil possessing every requisite 
