Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/379

1837.] in the scarps of a mountain running down into the Konkun, and seen from the Naneh ghat, about three miles distant. Here the Giant's Causeway in Ireland is brought to mind; but the scale of the mountain is infinitely more magnificent, being fully 4000 feet high. There is a double row of columns, but from their inaccessible situation, I could only examine them through my telescope, and cannot testify, therefore, to their perfect development.

Captain Dangerfield only once speaks of columns. They lie about a mile from the Nerbudda (Nermada), between Mundleysir and Mhysir, at 696 feet above the sea: they are either vertical or highly inclined. General Hardwick has published a lithographic sketch of them. I have already stated that Dr. Voysey found columnar basalt in many places in the Gawelghur range.

Schistose structure.—Following the preceding formation, I may mention, that in some few places a schistose structure was met with; but its extent was limited to a few yards, the lamellæ were vertical, from an inch to three inches in thickness, being perfect tables, with parallel bounding planes. The rock in which this structure occurs, is a simple, indurated, gray clay, which flies into fragments under slight blows from the hammer. At Dytneh near Serroor some very perfect specimens have led the inhabitants to connect mystic influences with so artificial a development of inorganic matter. The spot is daubed with oil and red lead, and venerated.

Basalt en boules.—Another characteristic feature is the general diffusion of those rounded or oval masses of compact basalt, with concentric layers like the coats of an union, which the French geologists denominate "Basalt en boules," and ourselves, nodular basalt.

These concretions are usually found at the base of hills, buried in the debris from the decomposing strata ; but in the Konkun, between Choke and Campolee (the latter at the foot of the Bore ghat), two villages on the high road between Bombay and Poena, I met with them lying on the surface over a considerable area. They occur in a similar manner on the table-land of the ball-practice hill at Poona. At Koothool (already mentioned), in the slope of the hill, and in the debris at its base, and along the edge of the table-land near Paubul, they are abundant; but the finest specimens are seen near the village of Karkullah, thirty miles north-west of Poona, associated with hori-