THE INDIA REVIEW 
OP WORKS ON SCIENCE, 
AND 
JOURNAL OF FOREIGN SCIENCE AND THE ARTS, 
EMBRACING 
MINERALOGY. GEOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, PHYSICS, &c. 
REVIEW. 
Notes on the Geology of the Country be- 
tween Madras and the Neilgherry Hills, 
via Bangalore, and vid Salem. By P. 
M. Benza, Esquire, M. D. of the 
Madras Establishment. 
Continued from page, 260. 
We now proceed to join Dr. Benza on his 
journey to the Neilgherry hills ; and, strange 
as it may appear to those unaccustomed to 
ideal travelling, we, sitting within the ram- 
parts of Fort William, can still imagine 
ourselves in the company of our talented 
and agreeable author. We can behold with 
him the lovely scenes he has witnessed, and 
with his avidity share the delights of his dis- 
coveries. He travels to a bungalow near Al- 
lampaucum on the road from Poonamalee. 
Monotonous plains alone are seen, and, with 
the exception of a few straggling pieces 
of a chloritic slate derived from some of the 
hills at a distance, there is nothing of interest 
to the geologist at Allampaucura. Near the 
bungalow, however, to which we have alluded, 
there are protruding rocks composed of 
foliated felspar of a pale flesh colour, in some 
places decomposing ; it occasionally imbeds 
angular pieces of white transparent quartz 
and, vice versa, the quartz imbeds the felspar. 
Quartz pebbles which originate in the 
disintegration of the huge veins of quartz 
seen protruding through the soil, bestrew its 
surface. The surface of some of the pebbles 
are of a red colour, extending for some lines 
into their substance, which circumstance 
Dr. Benza attributes to the effect of the 
infiltration of oxide of iron after the dis- 
integration of the veins. We now arrive at 
Goriattum, approaching which, the country 
becomes hilly, and majestic arboreous vege- 
tation is observed in the ravines and on the 
declivities of the hills. The projecting rocks 
are of granite, both common andsienitic. We 
proceed west ; the country is interspersed 
with hills and valleys. All the hills are grani- 
tic, the rock being traversed by thick veins of 
quartz. In some places there are numerous 
pieces of quartz magnetic iron ore. Numer- 
ous beds of chloritic rock are seen at Saut- 
gur sometimes porphyritic ; in other masses 
the minerals are distributed either in strata 
or uniformly through the substance of the 
rock. Below the hills the rock is of 
sienitic granite, intersected by thick veins 
of quartz. 
“ This sienitic granite, besides the horn- 
blende intermixed with the other minerals, 
has nests of it formed of the pure foliated 
mineral, or in a granular state, with some 
pieces of compact felspar, so as to resemble 
hornblende porphyry . 
All the plain below these hills is bestrewed 
with numerous' pieces of quartz and of folia- 
ted felspar, this last mineral being regularly 
crystallized, and its surface shining when seen 
at an angle with the light. 
On both sides of the road are seen, nearly 
level with the soil, the convex surfaces of large 
masses of a poi’phyritic rock, composed of 
regular crystals of red felspar, hornblende, 
and a lively pistachio coloured substance — 
(chlorite ?) 
The approach to Laulpet is represented 
as picturesque, surrounded by hills, and the 
valley highly cultivated with gardens and fruit 
trees. There is a magnificent mosque, and 
