334 
Mr. B. Babington’s Remarks on the Geology 
sienite,* and that the variegated rock will be found at a lower level. 
There had been much rain, and in all the little channels in the 
road there was a deposit of bluish black sparkling sand, which did 
not intermix with the white sand or red soil : this is the same as 
that smelted at Chittoor for iron. All the black rock which I have 
seen in Mysore, is hornblende, more or less perfectly crystallized, 
passing sometimes into basalt. The rocks continue of the same 
nature as those last described beyond Biddidy, and within a few 
miles of Bangalore, where there is a most remarkable exposition of 
their irregular veined appearance : no marble was ever more so. 
In many places on the road the soil appears to some depth ; it is 
red, and frequently covers large heaps and masses of decaying and 
decayed felspar. Quartz fragments, many of a red colour, are also 
very numerous on the surface. 
From Bangalore to Ooscotta I travelled at night, and beyond 
this place there is no appearance of rock, the country being high 
open land, as it is all about Bangalore. The iirst rocks that appear 
are nearly midway between Ooscotta and Norsapoor : they are low 
rounded masses, pushing but little above the surface of the ground, 
and are composed of felspar and hornblende rather intimately mixed. 
At Nursapoor, low rugged mountains appear, the sides of which 
are covered with masses, so that they seem rather gigantic heaps of 
stones than natural rocks. The most of these rocks are the com- 
pound of felspar and hornblende mentioned above, but they begin 
here to be veined, and to contain masses of a dark rock which is 
probably inclining to basalt. It is in truth little different from horn- 
blende, for we have a series from the most crystallized to the 
* Dr. Heyne also observes (Tracts on India, p. 42) that the inland range of the Ghauts 
is composed of sienite as well as the eastern Ghauts, differing but in the colour and pro- 
portion of felspar. 
