4 
Records of Lhe Geological Survey of India. 
[vOL. XI, 
li’ie total ovei'la]) of the lower part of the series, and therefore complete un- 
confonnity to the gneiss; subsequent mctamorphic action, largely affecting the 
slate series itself, especially at the contact with the older gneiss, has so obscured 
the junction as to make the exact definition of it a matter of great difficulty. 
The other newly reclaimed area is in Peninsular India. The wide tract (some 
300 miles long) between the Mahanadi and the lower reaches of the Godavari, 
although completely surveyed topogi’aphically, is one of the least frequented 
regifms of the Peninsula. It is a wild hilly country entirely occupied by primitive 
tribes and petty tributary states. Fi’oin the condition of adjoining areas wc 
could oidy coujoetiiro that it was occupied by Viiidhyan and gncissic rooks; 
and such has |)rovod to bo the ease. During the jiast season, Mr. Ball made an 
extensive circuit over that ground, and an account of his observations has already 
been published, with a sketch-map, in the Recoi’ds. 
On the coast side there is a broad mountainous belt (130 miles wide), some 
summits exceeding .5,000 feet in elevation. It is known on both sides to bo formed 
of crystalline rocks, and is probably so throughoirt. West of this there is an ex¬ 
tensive upland, also largely formed of gneissic rocks, but upon which there 
stand two or more scarped plateaus of flatty bedded sandstone, the pifincipal being 
that of Nowagarh-Khariiil. Further west there is the wide expanse of lowei’ 
ground fonned of the shales, limestone and sandstones, occuiying the plains of 
Chlmttisgarh and the upper valley of the Mahanadi, and stretching southwards 
to the more elevated land about Bastar. These latter rocks have for long been 
recogms(Ml as of lower Vindhyan ago; but Mi'. Ball thinks that the Kharial sand¬ 
stones may i'e|)resent ii])per Viudhyans, as they ai'e locally underlaid by shales 
very like those of the Chhattisgarh jilains. As yet no npjicr Vindhyans have 
been identified south of the Son-Narbada valley. That tluiso formations should 
still have to bo classed as azoic, is a recurring cause of surprise and disapjioint- 
ment to geologists in India. 
In the valley of the Tol and elsewhere in low gi'ound south of the Mahanadi, 
Mr. Ball observed several distant outliers of the Talchir deposits; while on the 
highest summits visited, both of detached hills and within the range of the Eastern 
Ghats, ho found the massive rock-latoritc, giving a plateau character to the other¬ 
wise serrated mountain-features. This high-level laterite forms, throughout the 
whole of middle and northern Indi-a, a thick (50 to 100 feet) level capjjing to 
most of the highest summits, whatever may be the structure of the underlying 
rocks, and has the same composition, whatever may bo that of the rocks it rest 
upon, so that it cannot in any way be derived from their transformation. Its mode 
of origin is still one of the greatest puzzles in Indian Geology. 
During a short visit to Naini Tal in September, Mr. Hall som<e obset’va- 
tions regarding* tlic numerous lakes of tliab noiglibourliood, 
Mr. Hacket s work in Hajputana must also rank as in new ground. He bas 
<'arried liis obsoiwations to some distance soutli of Ajmir, Avhere he obtained a 
rnller section of the mctamorphic rocks transitumallj underlying his Arvali 
s^^ries. In the northern sections, about Alwar and lliana, these transition bed.s 
