t 
GLEANINGS 
IN 
SCIENCE. 
No. 29. — J\tay, 1831. 
1 — Geological Observations made on a Journey from Calcutta to 
Ghazipur, by the Rev. R. Everest. 
[Read before the Physical Class Asiatic Society, 20th April.] 
Not far beyond the fiftieth milestone, on the road from Calcutta to Benares, we 
begin to observe that we are gradually leaving the alluvial plain of Bengal. The 
soil round us is turned more or less to a red clay, and our road lies through a soft, 
reddish sand, such as would be occasioned by disintegrated granite, composed of 
grains of felspar and quartz, with some mica, and a few rare black grains, some of 
which look like fragments of hornblende. 
A little before completing the 73rd mile, I observed a gravel intermingled with 
the red clay, which resembled the gravel we often see in basaltic or volcanic coun- 
tries, and which is there composed of small cinders, fragments of augite, &c. covered 
by a coating of burnt clay. In our present case the grains are globular, or nearly 
so, from the size of a pea to that of a hazel nut, dnd when broken, show a fracture 
of an iron black or red colour, and are full of small cavities ; but they are earthy 
and soft, yielding easily to the knife. 
These appearances continue as we advance, and we besides see angular fragments 
of a coarse sandstone lying about ; such a rock as might, by disintegration, form 
the reddish sand above mentioned. 
With these changes in the soil, a change in the level has also taken place, but 
the rise is so barely perceptible, that we travel on it a long while without being 
made aware of our situation, by the existence of lower land before us. 
And as we find ourselves among a succession of very gentle undulations, we pass 
over the beds of streams which no longer deposit mud, but fine sand and gravel. 
Every trace of the alluvial flat has disappeared ; over such a country, and, upon 
the whole gradually rising, we reach Banciireh. Here the surface presents us 
with the same appearances, but a well, fortunately, gave me a sight of the rock be- 
neath. Below two or three feet of granitic sand, was a well defined straight slaty 
gneiss, dipping rather to the westward of the north. It is very friable, owing to the 
decomposition of the mica, for about 10 feet down, and then suddenly becomes solid. 
I had no means of knowing whether this dip is universal or no in the country 
around ; for, except some large water-worn blocks, scattered about, the rock 
is scarcely any where to be seen. Once or twice I met with it exposed in a 
small watercourse, but much disturbed by veins of large grained quartz and felspar, 
which traversed it. With the granitic soil are mixed grains of the gravel we before 
NBW SERIES, NO. V. 
