Mountains, and Goological 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 Wákad 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. "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 carthy 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 branches. Both of these traverse the Buldána and part of the Básim district, almost parallel to the course of the Painganga, which flows between them. But the southern branch, after passing a small village called Mhad, takes a south-easterly direction, and running four miles to the south of Chikli and Fatekhelda, proceeds to Lonár. Thence, assuming an easterly course, it travels out of Berár at a point five miles south of Risod. Its further course may be tracked through the Narsi and Aunda parganas in the Nizám's territories to Manáta. From hence it extends to the south of the Painganga beyond Máhúr. The northern branch passing north of Mhad and Gilda proceeds to Buldana, and thence by a southerly course south of Amrápúr, Jánephal, via Sirpúr, to a point three miles north of Básim. Here it separates into two main divisions, one of which, passing through the south-east of Básim, extends to beyond Umarkher of the Básim district. The other main division after its separation takes a northerly course for about fourteen miles, after which it inclines to the north-east, and crossing the old Nágpúr dák line near Kini passes on viâ Kárinja to Yewatmál. A further description of these two main lines and the branches thrown out has been given at length in the Gazetteer for the Wún district. It may be as well to mention that from the main backbone near Sirpúr, not far from the source of the Múrna river, a rib is taken northward, which terminates near Bársi Tákli. Another rib, running somewhat parallel to the one last mentioned, also projects from the spinal ridge near Jámkhed and ends at Pátúr. Near Selu small spurs of the Kárinja and Yewatmál ridge shoot out to Kúrankher and to a point · six miles north of Pinjar. DISTRICT SELECTIONS. Elichpu'r (Melgha't). The Gáwilgarh mountains of the Melghát belong to the sevenfold Sátpura chain. Immediately east of the Baitúl district they divide into two distinct ranges of hills-the one running on to the west coast between, and nearly parallel to, the Tapti and Narbada; whilst the other, passing in a south-westerly direction through Baitúl, Melghat, and the southern portion of Nimár, terminates at the junction of the Tapti with its principal tributary the Púrna, of which rivers up to this point it forms the watershed. In Melghat the crest of the Sátpura attains an average elevation of 3,400 feet above the sea. The highest summit, Bairát, is 3,987 feet. The main height of the lower hills bordering upon the Tapti is about 1,650 feet. The chief passes are Mallara on the east, Dúlghát on the west, and Bingára on the extreme west. There are several smaller intermediate tracks, which are used almost solely by the Gonds in bringing their wood down for sale in the markets at the foot of the hills adjoining the Berár plains. None of the passes are practicable for wheeled vehicles. Mountains, and Geological Formation. District Selections. Mountains, and Geological Formation. District Selections. tures. Amra'oti. ** An extensive plain, some eight hundred feet above the sea, Elevation and physical fea. consisting principally of black loam, overlying basalt, with a gentle slope from north to south, and watered by numerous streams. The soil, which is extremely fertile, has been for the most part brought under cultivation. The general flatness of the district is broken by a small chain of hills running in a north-westerly direction. between Amráoti and Chándor, with a general average of from four to five hundred feet about the lowlands. So small is this chain that it has as yet received no name, though each separate hillock has received one from the natives. They are very bleak and bare, and are thickly covered with large stones and detached pieces of rock. Akola. In aspect the district is almost a dead level; it may be judged to in a channel from fifty to nine feet deep. The surface-soil is to a very great extent a rich black alluvial vegetable mould. Where this surface-soil does not exist we have moorum and trap, with a shallow upper crust of inferior light soil; sometimes the underlying moorum is covered at various depths by a not unproductive reddish-coloured earth. The black soil is found under two conditions, under either of which its mode of cultivation, producing-power, and produce are completely altered and controlled. These conditions are 1st-Where the soil is very deep, and the underlying strata, yellow clay and lime, are impregnated with saline matter; and 2nd-Where the soil is at a moderate depth overlying yellow clay or moorum. Under the first condition the "rabi," or cold-weather or dry crops, are very successfully sown. Providentially the water stratum lies very low; but this circumstance carries with it these two disadvantages -drinking-water is very scarce, and gardening cannot be attempted, as wells have to be dug. Under the second condition the cold-weather or rabi sowings are not attempted except by irrigation; but as the water is not far from the surface it can be used not only for the rabi fields, but for a long list of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Where the land along the main streams has been much cut up by the drainage, here the loam deposit is of a lighter colour, or the original * The Amrácti Court-House stands 1,331 feet above the sea, but this is high ground. F |