134 
Geological Observations wade on a 
[Mat, 
among them, were deposited beds composed of their debris, and subsequently of the 
vegetables which grew on them, of which theory we here see so beautiful an illus- 
tration in a distant land. 
As we leave GUmeah we ascend, by a regular slope, up the side of the great 
range, which we had observed as fronting us on leaving Chass. The rock, as far as 
we see of it, is here granite and gneiss ; more granite than we have yet seen, and 
without hornblende. Once, between Chuti and Narkandy, there was a distinct 
passage of the rock to sandstone, similar to what I have twice before mentioned, 
but only for a few yards. Between Narkandy and Hazaribagh I had no means 
of ascertaining the nature of the rock. 
At Hazaribagli we are on a granitic soil, and apparently on a level, or nearly 
so. In fact we stand on the back of the great ridge from which the rivers take 
opposite directions, and which, to judge from the maps, must reach from Rajmekal 
nearly to Nagpur. 
We leave Hazaribagh, on a gentle descent, which becomes more apparent as 
we advance, and about 12 or 14 miles further on, come to a low range of hills 
running nearly east and west. It is the same rock we have seen at Amchatar, and 
on the eastern bank of the Damiida, a sienitic greenstone, passing to hornblende 
rock ; and it has here the distinct features of trap, a rugged ridge of gneiss occa- 
sionally rising into cones, and cutting the country like thick dykes. Our ascent up 
it is trifling; but when we are on it, we see before us a precipitous descent of seve- 
ral hundred feet, at the foot of which lies a low country, intersected by others of 
these ridges or mountainous dykes, which, though irregular, mostly take a direc- 
tion parallel to the one we are on ; many of the blocks on the descent are 
slaty. 
We have here an example of the Ghats of India, as they are called, and we may 
not unaptly compare it to the edge of a basin nearly full. 
About 3 miles off, in the valley, we come to Katcamsandy. Here, in the bed of 
the rivulet, the rock is gneiss, rather inclining to a gritty gneiss (if such a term may 
be used), highly inclined, and dipping to the south. As its range is parallel to that 
of the trap ridge we have just passed, this latter has probably burst forth rather 
between the strata than cutting them. 
Four miles further on, at Katcamsandy, the rock was porphyry ; a base of greenish 
grey compact felspar, with blotches of a reddish and brownish colour in it, and in- 
tersected by a network of quartz veins— not quartz of such a lustre as we find in 
veins in granite, but a dull translucent substance, approaching to chalcedony; &V 
S. The hot spring gushes out in a stream, apparently as thick as a man’s finger. 1 
was prevented from making such observations on it as I could have wished, from a 
ciowd of people, who were employed bathing themselves in it, and had made the 
whole a dirty puddle. 
For about 25 miles further on, we pass over a country nearly flat. The rock 
which we see occasionally runs through those various and undefinable change-' 
which are usual in the passage from primitive to transition strata, and which it were 
tedious to attempt to describe, as those who have ever seen such formations, must 
know ; sienite, sienitic granite, sienitic gneiss, porphyritic granite, are names that 
will perhaps include most of the varieties ; the general dip is to the south. Before 
reaching the 267th milestone, I met with well-defined strata of gneiss, in the bed of 
w: let / ip r r f h r t0 the eaSt ° f SOUth : a ^ on the other side, were 
dippi n/to^l OWI \ S i Hte Clay / Similar to wlla t may be seen in the Raniganj strata, 
dipping to the vest, but nearly horizontal. Nearly 3 miles further on, at W 
