Stratification.—Previously to entering into descriptive details, I will state, in a few words, that the whole of the country comprised within my boundaries is composed of distinctly stratified trap rocks, without the intervention of the rocks of any other formation. Whether at the level of the sea, or at the elevation of 4500 feet, in all and every part, beds of basalt and amygdaloid are found alternating, whose superior and inferior planes preserve a striking parallelism to each other, and, as far as the eye can judge, to the horizon. Barometrical measurements and the course of rivers indicate a declination of the country to the east-south-east and south-east. From the town of Goreh, latitude 19°-03 and longitude 74°-05, on the Goreh river, following a mean course for the river until it falls into the Beema, and subsequently, continuing a mean course for the Beema until its junction with the Seena river, the distance is about 200 miles, and the declination 671 feet: there may therefore be a trifling dip of the strata; but as a succession of low terraces occur in that distance, the apparent horizontal position of the strata may be unaffected by the above difference of level.
Dr. MacCulloch, describing the over lying or trap rocks, says, "these masses are generally irregular, but sometimes bear indistinct marks of stratification."[1] As Dr. MacCulloch's language implies the rare occurrence of stratification, instead of its being a distinctive feature, at least of the Indian branch of the trap family, I deem it necessary to quote the few authors who have written on Indian geology, in confirmation of the fact I have stated.[2]
- ↑ Classification of Rocks, p. 466.
- ↑ "These mountains (the Vindhya range), like every other in Malwa, appear to be distinctly stratified, consisting of alternate, horizontal beds of basalt or trap and amygdaloid. Fourteen of these beds may in general be reckoned, the thinnest at the top, and rapidly increasing in thickness as they lower in position, the basalt stratum at the bottom being about 200 feet thick." Again, at page 327, he says: "In the upper plains of Malwa every point of view presents the same uniform and distinctly streaked appearance noticed in the Vindhya range."—Captain Dangerfield, in Geological Notices of Malwa, in Appendix No. 2. to Sir John Malcolm's Central India, pp. 322, 327.
Dr. Voysey, in a paper on the Geological and Mineralogical Structure of the vicinity of Nagpoor, says: "From the summit of the hill of Sitabaldi the difference in the outline of the rocks eastward is very perceptible. The flattened summits and long flat outlines, with the numerous gaps of the trap hills, are exchanged for the ridgy, peaked, sharp outline of the primary rocks."—Physical Class of the Asiatic Researches, p. 127.
In a second paper in the same work, on some petrified shells in the Gawelghur range of trap mountains, extending for 165 miles along the left bank of the Tapty river, from its source to the city of Boorhanpoor, he describes the principal part of the range as formed of "compact basalt very much resembling that of the Giant's Causeway. It is found
