Mountains, "A deposit of varying thickness (within three feet) and but small lateral extent, consisting of fine dazzlingly white sand finely laminated, occurs in the alluvial bank of the Púrna at Párath. It appears to be composed of comminuted or disintegrated crystals of felspars with a small admixture of clay. It did not appear to be formed of, or to contain, minute organisms, such as foraminifera, and was not elsewhere observed. "Much of this Púrna alluvium produces efflorescences of salts of soda chiefly, and in many places the wells sunk in it are brackish or salt. Over a wide tract on each side of the Púrna river, north of Akola and thence eastward towards Amráoti, wells are specially sunk for obtaining common salt from highly saturated brine. "Some of these salt-wells near Dahihánda, in the lands of Ganori, are from 120 to 130 feet in depth or probably more. They are sunk through yellow clay, then redder clay, and below this a coarse sand or fine gravel, from which the water issues with great force. They are lined with wicker-work in order to preserve the pottery vessels, in which the water is raised by hand, from breakage. The crystals of the salt are small, and it is rather dirty, but during the "Dhúp Kál," or hot season, it can be obtained whiter. The wells are numerous over the tract north of the river, and some also occur to the south. "That the alluvium of the valley is of considerable depth may be, perhaps, inferred from the absence of numerous exposures of rock, as well as from the depth of nallas and height of the river cliffs. The conglomerate, as usual, occurs in its lower portions, but was observed in some places west of Pátulla at different heights in the sections exposed. Its constant or frequent occurrence beneath the rest of the alluvium would not prove its being contemporaneous in all places, as the trap-rocks, upon which these deposits lie, cannot be presumed to have had a surface sufficiently even to have permitted this. "Whether the whole of this alluvium was deposited in a lake, or by the river travelling from side to side of the valley under other conditions than at present obtain, does not appear. A former estuarine state of things may be indicated by the salt-bearing gravels, or a large salt-lake; but the even, though interrupted, surface of the alluvium is against the probability of its having been deposited by the Púrna under present conditions; while want of information as to the relative levels obscures the possibility of determining whether the rocky country about Edalábád may not have formed a natural band, flooding the country occupied by the alluvium; certainly the stream through most of this is sluggish, but it seems to be a rather strong assumption that no greater fall than the height of the river-banks where it enters this rocky tract— perhaps on an average not more than thirty feet-takes place within so great a distance as extends between this and the upper end of the alluvium about, or south-west of Amráoti. . "The hills and portion of the valley south of the Púrna river have been stated to consist of trap similar to that of the Dakhan. All the usual varieties of amygdaloid, zeolitic, columnar, hard, gray, and softer, ashy-looking traps. occur, their stratification being very perceptible, and always nearly horizontal. "Perhaps the most interesting geological feature of this country is the occurrence of a great fault, with a down-throw to the south, which may be very considerable, as it shifts the trap downwards for some two or three hundred feet visible, added to an unknown thickness of the trap which is buried by it, so that trap, of what exact horizon cannot be stated, is brought against the underlying Máhádeva or Bágh (Tánda) sandstones. This fault crosses the country in an east and west direction, close to the foot of the Gáwilgarh range north of Elichpúr, where the abrupt southern scrap of the range shows these sandstones occupying the interiors of open curves in the trap like those just now mentioned. The difference of inclination between the sandstone and the traps is but slight, so that their unconformity is, as usual, not very strongly apparent, though it nevertheless exists. The line of contact where the overlying traps rests upon the sandstone is frequently difficult to see when close by it, though from a distance the difference of colouring and the bold projections of the sandstone outcrop mark it well. The sandstones are chiefly soft or coarse white and even-grained rock, which would doubtless make a good building-stone. A large mass of these occurs in the lower portion of the group exposed; above them are conglomerates, other sandstones of similar kind, purple and black shales and flagstones, variegated and white flagstones and shales, and then solid gray limestone with silicious or cherty nodules of peculiarly rugged aspect, these limestones in some places becoming so variegated as to form what, if polished, would doubtless be a handsome marble. "In this group of Máhádeva or Bágh beds dips to the north of 10" and 15", with others more nearly horizontal, may be sometimes seen, these becoming less as the sandstones finally disappear beneath the Gáwilgarh traps to the north of the cantonments of Elichpúr. In the river at Nara, north-east of the latter place, the section is somewhat unusual. The ground here seems to have been intensely faulted, and, instead of leaving the trap and passing over the fault on to sandstone at the base of the hills, trap is again. found north of the general line of fault; then occur several large dykes of another intrusive trap different from that usually met with, between which are masses of the limestone, sometimes resting upon a conglomerate, and tilted in various directions at angles of 35° and 50°. Beyond this disturbed locality the next rock seen is sandstone, horizontal for some distance, but soon overlaid and covered up from view by the unconformable trap. "Laterite occurs on the new road from Elichpúr to Amráoti at a place called Balgaon or Badgaon, about six miles from the latter city. It is more properly a lateritic conglomerate of small pebbles cemented together by iron oxides. It lies horizontally, Mountains, and Geological Formation. Mountains, and Geological Formation. and has much the appearance of a re-composed rock, in many places quite incoherent, harder at the top and outsides than internally, and the pebbles are all red, bright purple, or ferruginous, glazed outside, and not recognisable as derived from any of the traps of the country, unless from their resemblance they might be taken to have come from one of the beds of red bole, which are not very uncommon; but then there is no reason why, if so derived, they should not be intermixed with other trap pebbles. This has all the appearance of a local deposit, does not crop out in some natural excavations near at the same level, and apparently passes away underneath the cotton soil; but, being horizontal, or nearly so, shows for a considerable distance along a sluggish stream which occurs here, occasionally varying in structure so as to become a mottled white and purple rock of some strength. "At Chikalda (the hill-station on top of the Gáwilgarh range, frequented by people from Elichpúr), the plateau upon which it stands and the surrounding summits have a strongly lateritic appearance, such as may be seen at Mátherán and other summits of the Western Ghats. "The cotton soil or black soil of the Púrna valley, although common enough, as is usual in these trappean districts, has no geological peculiarity here requiring attention. To its development, however, and the fertile nature of soils derived from the trap, may be traced doubtless the name which this country has obtained as a cottonproducing district."* Southward, beyond the valley, we come to the Ajanta hills. Of these hills Dr. Oldham writes: "With the exception of irregular patches of alluvial (pleiocene) deposits along the river-valleys the whole is of trap. And it will only be necessary to notice one or two of the marked features. Of these the well-known and often-described Lonár lake is one of the most interesting. It is not more than four miles from the boundary of the province. The trap-rocks all extending from Jálna to this place appear horizontal. No change whatever takes place in them near Lonár. The beds on the edge of the singular crateriform hollow are the usual basalts and amygdaloids, abounding in kernels of agate, carbonate of lime, zeolites, or coated with green earth as usual. No dykes whatever were observed. Ash certainly is met with, but it is the ordinary vesicular ash of the traps, full of zeolites, and such as may be found everywhere in the Dakhan. The hollow is nearly as possible circular, rather more than a mile in diameter, the sides nearly precipitous. A stream from a small spring which supplies Lonár with water has cut a shallow ravine down to the lake which occupies the depression. There is no outlet. The sides of the crater to the north and north-east are absolutely level with the surrounding country; while to the west, south-west, south, and south-east there is a raised rim, never exceeding one hundred feet in height, * Records of the Geological Survey of India, vol. ii., part 1. and frequently only forty or fifty feet high. In this low-raised rim there is no trace of distinct ash-beds or lava-flows; it is unquestionably composed of huge blocks of trap, precisely similar to those of the beds below irregularly piled together. The types of the ordinary Dakhan traps are so peculiar that their identification is easy. The mass of materials forming the rim resembles those thrown out of an artificial hole in everything except the size of some of the fragments. "The trap-beds dip away from the edge of the hollow generally but irregularly, and appear to owe their dip entirely to disturbance. "There is thus a total absence of everything which in general characterises a volcano. And yet without volcanic action it is inconceivable that such a hollow should have been formed. No process of aqueous denudation can explain it. The rim, too, appears formed from the fragments ejected from the crater. True this rim cannot contain one thousandth part of the material removed, but the majority was probably reduced to fine powder by repeated ejections, scattered over the country, and removed by subsequent denudation. "The hollow might be due to sinking; but in that case 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 a hypothesis. It is certainly stranger to find so wellmarked a crater without any trace of anything ejected from it. Such a crater might just as well have been formed in sedimentary rocks. "East of Lonár lake the traps appear to be quite horizontal, one bed extending for a considerable distance near the villages of Dewalgaon and Loni, and beyond the last to Madhí, and appears to be absolutely level throughout. Towards Wákad, on the Painganga, the beds dip slightly to the north. The Painganga near Wakad and for many miles below is a deep sluggish stream, with earth-banks covered with grass, and exposing no section at the sides. Trap occasionally, but rarely, shows. Near Musla a little gravel is cut through here and there. "From the Painganga to Básim and thence to Mangrúl is an undulating plain, stony in places. Between Parudi 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 two to four inches in diameter, and usually well rounded, not by rolling, but by weathering. The bed of trap from which they are derived (by weathering), and which forms the surface throughout, is compact, and very minutely crystalline, containing no olivine, nor any other mineral distinct from the mass, and, so far as known, no zeolite nor agate nodules. To the north this terminates in a low scarp (not a great range as represented on the atlas sheet No. 6). There may be a very slight dip to the south, but it is scarcely perceptible. * W. T. Blanford-Puna to Nágpúr, Records of the Geological Survey of India, vol. i., part 3. Mountains, and Geological Formation. Mountains, Trappean rocks cover all the area lying to the cast of this till we arrive at the plain of the Wardha; there the trap-rocks rest unconformably upon a series of beds of shale or slate and limestone and sandstone. The boundary of these stretches in an irregular line from near the junction of the Wana and the Wardha, passing south to Khaira and a little to the south of this town, turning to the west by Bori and on to Wagara: while these stratified rocks are again covered by a series of variegated sandstones, with an irregular development of coalbearing beds under. These cover a rudely triangular space along the river Wardha, including the town of Wún and the country between the Wardha river and the Nirgara or Wún stream, and extending southerly to and across the Painganga. Coal has been found in beds of considerable thickness near the Wardha river, and has been traced for some distance. This district is now being systematically examined. "The limestones and shales mentioned above are seen in fair section close to the junction of the overlying trap on the Wardha below Súit. The rock is chiefly a gray earthy amorphous limestone, containing chert in places, not in very large masses. At Wanjra, about five miles north of Wún town, a small hill is composed of pinkish limestone in thin beds. West of Wún (about four miles) the limestone continues varying in colour from buff to dark gray, and contains chert, passing into jasper, in tolerably regular layers. The same general South of characters continue further to the southward near Khair. "These limestones and shales, &c., belong to the great Vindhyan series. Near Khair, and to the south-west near Arjana, hot springs issue from the limestones. "To the west and north of Khair a deep re-entering angle or bay in the trappean rocks exposes a considerable area of infratrappean rocks, probably belonging to the same group as the Laméta beds of the Narbada valley. "A small outlier of the trap forms little hills or a small ridge about five miles in length, just north of the villages of Jarpat and Samnara, about four miles to the north-west of Wún town." The geographical lines and extent of these hill-ranges in South Berár may be thus sketched. They cross the Berár boundary from the west at longitude 76° 3′ and latitude 72° 2. Immediately after entering the province the main stem divides into two branchies. Both of |