396 
SECOND REPORT—1833. 
Of the coasts of Australia we have derived much information 
from the circumnavigation of Capt. King ; and all the geological 
notices he was able to procure have been excellently digested 
by his friend Dr. Fitton in a general resume appended to his 
Voyage . Since this we have obtained some additional details 
with regard to the neighbourhood of Swan River; but the in¬ 
terior of this vast country still remains a terra incognita , not only 
to the geologist, but even to his precursor the geographer. 
Turning from the Old to the New World, we first naturally 
look for information to the United States.—In Silliman s Journal 
we find many very good detached memoirs ; but the general out¬ 
lines of the geology of that continent, so long ago and so ably 
sketched by Maclure, are as yet but very imperfectly filled up. 
In the imperfect state of secondary geology at that time, his 
errors in this respect, confounding these formations with allu¬ 
vial, &c., are not to be wondered at. Subsequently the progress 
of this department has been much retarded by the strange no- 
the trap of the Gonilgesh Hills, (between the confluence of the Tapti and Purnah 
in the Berar district ;) the same lias-like beds occur with the red sandstone of 
the Golconda district. A primitive range extending from near Delhi to the 
head of the Gulf of Cambay, separates the secondary rocks of Malwah from 
those of the great basin of the Indus; but on the western boi'ders of this ridge 
through Ajmeer, the red sandstone again shows itself, containing rock salt and 
gypsum. The whole of this immense basin appears to have been hitherto geo¬ 
logically neglected, although it would probably best repay such an examination ; 
for here, if anywhere in India, we might most probably expect a fuller series 
of secondary rocks. Mr. Govan has observed at the very source of the Sutlej, 
one of the chief tributaries of the Indus, amid the highest primitive peaks of 
Himmaleh, a small basin of secondary limestone containing Ammonites and 
Cardia. 
3. Tertiary rocks occur at the foot of the first rise of the primitive rocks of 
the Himmaleh, in the North-west of Bengal, where the Brahmaputra issues 
from them at the pass of the Garrow Hills; Cerithia, Turritellae, remains of 
lobsters, sharks, crocodiles, &c., are here found ; and further east nummulite 
limestone prevails at Silhet. The soil throughout Bengal is often occupied by 
deposits of clay, containing concretionary lumps of limestone called Kunkaer; 
this, which affords the principal supply of lime in India, is probably of very 
recent origin. It remains only to notice the great basaltic district of the North¬ 
west. This extends from Nagpur in the very centre of India to the western 
coast between Goa and Bombay, occupies the whole of that coast to its termi¬ 
nation at the Gulf of Cambay, and thence penetrates northwards as far as the 
24th parallel of north latitude. 
In the Burmese Empire we find primitive rocks in the chains above Ava, but 
tertiary beds, with the characteristic shells, in the valley of the Irrawady near 
Prome ; also remains of the Mastodon, &c., in the diluvial gravel. West of this 
the whole chain of the Malayan peninsula is primitive, consisting principally 
of stanniferous granite. 
I believe that the above, condensed as it is, will be found the fullest general 
account of the progress as yet made in Indian geology hitherto presented to 
the public. 
