1831.] 
Rajmahal Cluster of Hills. 
7 
substances, to which I have above alluded, and the more perfect siliceous nodules 
may, I think, be observed. When perfect, they are more or less diaphanous, or even 
transparent ; and many of them are crystallized. Some of their substances are 
uniform, others are in various coloured layers, but in general without the smallest 
interruption of continuity. These layers are sometimes parallel, sometimes concentric, 
and several nodules with concentric layers are often included in one mass. Many 
of the masses are covered with stellated pits, as if they had formerly been corals ; 
but the crystallized internal structure of some that are thus pitted on the surface, 
seems to prove, that the appearance is not owing to the impression of animal 
exuviae. The crystals are very various. In general they are clusters covering the 
surface ; but in others they are confined between parallel plates ; while in others they 
shoot from the inner surface of a smooth cylinder, and fill its cavity ; finally, in 
others they form through the substance of the nodule very curious angular cavities. 
The other kind of sporadic masses, scattered on the sui’face of this mineral tract, 
is calcareous, and consists of nodules called ghangal. In some places, these nodules 
are small, lie on the surface, so as to cover it entirely, and prevent vegetation. In 
others they are imbedded at some depth in a thick red soil, through which they are 
scattered at various depths. Their surface is white, and very irregular, and their 
shape is very various, often branching out like corals. They are exceedingly hard, 
and within of a compact structure, and are entirely similar to the calcareous nodules 
found in the south of India, which I have described in my account of Mysore. In 
the interior of the district they are generally found on the surface ; but towards the 
banks of the Ganges are most usually immersed in the earth, and in both are used 
for making lime ; but it is of an inferior quality, and is not white, nor fit for the 
outside plaster with which walls are encrusted ; but answers well enough for mortar 
to connect the bricks. On the hills of Paingti and Sakarigali considerable quanti- 
ties are burned. 
This calcareous matter seems to me to be a kind of tufa 3 , and to have been once in a 
soft state ; on these detached nodules, indeed, no impressions can be traced ; and there 
is strong reason to think, that they are now forming, as it is alleged by the workmen, 
that the same earth, from which they have been taken, after a lapse of some years, 
ts found to contain new ones. But farther, the very same calcareous substance, of 
which these nodules consists, is found in very large solid masses, in which it seems 
to have flowed over the surface of the stony matter, and to have involved many de- 
tached portions, or to have lodged on the surface of a rock, into the crevices and 
pores of which it has penetrated, so that the two masses cohere. The external sur- 
face of such masses is as unequal as that of the nodules, and resembles that of some 
corals. 
At Paingti two very distinct kinds of this tufa in mass may be traced. One ex- 
actly resembles the stone of Manihari, described in my account of Puraniya, and 
which, when I wrote that, I considered as a porphyry changed into calcareous mat- 
ter ; and in fact it so exactly resembles the argillaceous breccia found in the hills 
south west from Phutkipur, that I have very little doubt of its having been once of 
a similar nature. In this are involved many masses of the hornblende in mass, 
which I have mentioned as constituting the greater part of the hills near Paingti. 
The masses of hornblende are of very various sizes, from that of an apple to that 
of the head, and have been rounded by the progress to decay, before involved in the 
calcareous mass. The other kind of solid calcareous mass found at Paingti consists 
of the common tufa , involving pebbles of various natures, but mostly of the geru 
or indurated reddle, that I have formerly mentioned. 
* Evidently what in other parts of the country is called cancar. See our 1st. 
vol. p. 305 et seq.— Ed. Gl. 
