183 !.] 
Rajmahal Cluster of Hills. 
5 
and such seem to me to be granitic rocks in a state of decay 5 . The various stages 
may be traced at PathargMta, under the temple of Baleswar ; and the most complete 
specimen may be observed on the Parpahar, which is a few miles above Rajmahal. 
Sandstones, in many parts of the world, form the best material for building ; but 
in this district, so far as can be judged from what appears on the surface, they are 
of little or no use. The only one, that seems to have been wrought, is on the face 
of the hill above Patharghat, where the edge of a horizontal stratum of concrete 
siliceous stone has been smoothed, and carved with numerous figures, probably of 
considerable antiquity. The stone is certainly very ill fitted for sculpture ; but 
seems to resist the weather, and probably would answer well in building. A stone of 
a similar nature, but much more perfect, is found on the summit of Kangreswarika- 
tok, which I take to be the crater of an extinguished volcano ; but its situation is 
too distant from water carriage to admit of its being used. 
Besides the granites and vertical strata in a state of decay, I must mention, that 
under the northern and southern extremities of this range, at Patliarghata and Khari- 
pahar, there is large grained grey granite, with black micaceous or shorlaceous spots- 
At Patharghita the rock is washed by the Ganges, and fine masses might, no doubt, 
be procured. In the very southern extremity of the division, on the Duyarka river, 
is a fine rock of solid granitel 6 , consisting of black shorl, with many small specks of 
white quartz. It may be doubted, however, whether any of these primitive rocks 
form a part of this eastern range, as they are found just on its extremities, and may 
belong to adjacent mineral structures. 
I here observed several breccias 7 , with an argillaceous cement, containing round- 
ed nodules of different kinds. One of these was in the bottom of the cavity in 
Kangreswai'ikatok, a place which I take to have been the crater of a volcano. 
Another was on the hills between Phutkipur and Mansa Chandi, which consists 
chiefly of what appears evidently to me to be a slaggy matter, that has undergone 
the action of fire ; but, before I proceed to treat farther on such slags, I must ob- 
serve, that south from Mansa Chandi, at Jajpur, on the borders of Virbhum and 
Murshedabad, there is a hill, which consists chiefly of a clay readily cut with a 
knife, but which on exposure to air becomes somewhat hard, and is evidently of the 
same nature with the brickstones of Malabar, which I have described in my account 
of Mysore. It is, however, vastly inferior in quality. This clay has a very strong 
resemblance to the slaggy stone of Mansa Chandi ; and some parts of it, that have 
hardened into stone, are scarcely distinguishable, except by wanting the slaggy 
appearance. They must, however, be considered as a kind of breccia, as they contain 
ferruginous nodules in an argillaceous cement. 
To return to the slaggy matter, which I consider as having undergone the action 
of volcanic fire, I cannot say that I saw it any where, very decidedly, forming great 
masses like currents of lava, but on a great many places I found it in detached 
blocks lying on the surface ; such as on Pir-pahar, near Rajmahal, on Chaundi-pahar, 
on the road between Sripur and Majhuya, and on different parts of Kangreswari - 
katok, which I consider as the old crater. On Mansa Chandi and Gadai Tunggi, I 
am inclined to think, that the masses were united into solid rocks ; but, without 
5 This seems rather an unwarrantable extension of the term sandstone, judging 
by the present practice of geologists; but at the time Dr. B. wrote, terms were used 
very vaguely, and with wide significations. Even at the present day this fault has 
not been entirely corrected. — E d. Gl. 
® Granitel is a term now nearly obsolete, applied by the older geologists to a mix- 
ture of hornblende and felspar, or hornblende and quartz. Ed. Gl. 
7 Modern geologists confine the term breccia to a rock formed of angular frag- 
ments. If the pieces are rounded they use the term conglomerate. — Ed. Gl. 
