VT. 3.] 
W. Stanford, Poona to Nagpur. 
63 
The hollow might be due to sinking, but in this ease it is probable that the trap beds 
around the rim would dip towards the hollow rather than away from it, while the rim is 
simply unaccountable on such an hypothesis. It is certainly strange to find so well marked 
a crater without any trace of anything ejected from it. Such a crater might just as well have 
been found in sedimentary rocks. 
_ Malcolmson’s description (Trans. Geol. Soc.. London, 2nd Ser., Yol. V, p. 562), is admira¬ 
ble in every way; he observes well that if denudation had removed any cone formed of sconce 
and lava, the crater itself could not have preserved its form uninjured. 
Dr. Carter's description, (Journal Bombay Br. Royal Asiat. Soc., Vol. V, p, 324), copied 
from a manuscript by Dr. Bradley, is very incorrect. The latter found lava flows, or, as he 
terms them, lavic currents proceeding from the crater, greenstone dykes and scoria;. I did 
not discover the two former. Scoria; I certainly found, but they came from brick-kilns. 
The water has a peculiar saline taste. It is so heavy that a slight breeze does not 
appear to ruffle it. It looks like a lake of oil. There is a slightly unpleasant smell caused by 
the decay of a green scum (? conferva) which occurs on it. Malcolmson’s analysis shows 
that the water contains no lime, yet there is a calcareous deposit on the rocks of the ravine 
by which water reaches the lake. The accumulation of salt must be due to the absence of 
an exit. All the salts carried in by streams accumulate, the water evaporates,* 
The shore of the lake is of muddy sand. Around is a fringe of babul trees (Acacia 
arabica), and beyond them tamarind and tiher (Zizypluis jujuba) and date palms. The sides 
are covered with jungle. 
By aneroid measurement my camp at Loonar was about 313 feet above the lake. The 
rim might he in places 100 feet above my camp, so the whole depth can barely exceed 400 feet. 
The salt of the lake is largely collected in the hot weather. A Parsec is said to have 
paid 11,000 Rupees to Government for three years'monopoly. The principal use is for the 
manufacture of glass bangles for women, for which purpose the salt is smelted with quartz 
(gar). The purer salt is used by washermen. There are said to he five kinds of salt, but 
they appear to he merely varieties of the same, differing in purity and state of aggregation/! 
East of Loonar Lake tin- traps appear to be perfectly horizontal. One bed extends for 
a considerable distance near the villages of Dcvilgilm and Lony, and beyond the last named 
village to Mudhee, and appears to be absolutely level throughout. 
Towards Wakiul on the Pain Gunga the beds may dip somewhat to the north ; they 
seem to hill somewhat from Loonar and Lony towards the river, while there is a scarp to 
the south, but the dip, if it exists, is very low. 
The Pain Gunga near Wakud and for many miles below is a deep sluggish stream, 
with earth hanks covered with grass and exposing no section at the sides. Trap” occasionally 
but rarely shows. Near Muslah a little gravel is cut through here and there. 
From the Pain Gunga the road loads over an undulating plain, stony in places to 
Bassim, and thence to Mungrool. Between Parudeo and the latter place the road for 
five or six miles traverses a very stony plain, covered with trap boulders, the majority small 
not above 2 to 4 inches in diameter, and unusually well rounded, not by rolling,' but by 
weathering. The hod of trap from which they are derived (by weathering),' and winch form's 
the surface, throughout, is compact, and very minutely crystalline, containing no olivine nor 
any other mineral distinct from the mass, and, so far as I observed, neither zeolite’ nor 
agate nodules. 
To the north this bed ends in a low scarp (not a great range, as represented on the map) 
It may consequently have a slight dip to the south, but if so, the inclination is so small as 
to be imperceptible. 
From Mungrool the road taken* leads east through the Woon or south-east district 
of Berar. A scarp is descended about 4 miles east of Mungrool, and a second about 
m i rhis flops not alone, however, account for the composition of the solid contents of the water, for which see 
Malcolmson, 1. c. 
,Alexander, hd. Phil. •lourn., 1821, Vol. XT, p. 30,8; Orlebar, Proceedings of Bombay Geogr. Soc. for February 
1839, p.3o : Buist. Ed. New 1 hil. Jour. 55, Vol. I, New Ser., 2f>0: Newbold, Journal Royal Asiatic Society. 
+ from Mungrool 1 proceeded nearly due east to Mangali, and thence north to Nagpur. 
