LIBRARY.

The following books have been added to the Library since the last meeting.

Presented.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. XVII. Part I.—PRESENTED BY THE SOCIETY.

An Analytical Digest of all the Reported Cases decided in the Supreme Courts of Judicature in India, in the Courts of the Hon'ble East India Company, and on Appeal from India to Her Majesty in Council. By W. H. Morley. Part VI.-BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

The Burmese Reader by Lieut. D. A. Chase. Moulmein 1849, 4 copies (Pamphlets).—BY THE SAME.

Journal of the Indian Archipelago. For November and December 1849. -BY THE EDITOR.

Ditto Ditto. 2 copies.-BY THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL.

Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. New series, Vol. I. part 3.-BY THE ACADEMY.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. VIII.—BY THE SOCIETY.

Journal of the Madras Literary Society, No. 35.-BY THE SOCIETY.
The Oriental Baptist, No. 38.-BY THE EDITOR.

The Upadeshaka, No. 38.—BY THE EDITOR.

The Oriental Christian Spectator for January, 1850.-BY THE EDITORS. The Calcutta Christian Observer for February, 1850.—BY THE EDItors. Supplement to No. XIV. Picnic Magazine.-BY THE EDITOR.

Comparative Philology (from the Calcutta Review, No. 24).-BY REV. J. LONG.

Tattvabodhini Patriká, No. 77.-BY THE TATTVABODHINI SHABHA'. Essay on Arabic Poetry, in Arabic, by Mauluvi Reza Hossen Khán Báhá. dur.-BY THE AUTHOR.

Meteorological Register kept at the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, for the month of December, 1849.-BY THE DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL. Map of the District of Behar.-BY THE Government of Bengal.

Exchanged.

The Athenæum, Nos. 1149, 50—53-54.

Calcutta Review, No. 24.

Purchased.

The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, No. 23.

Meteorological Register kept at the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, for the Month of February, 1850.

Observations made at Sun-rise.

Maximum Pressure observed at 9h. 50m.

Observations made at apparent noon.
Temperature.

Inches •

Inches

Inch. Inch.

.889 81.2 80.2 70.3 NNW Cumuli

O

26

JOURNAL

OF THE

ASIATIC SOCIETY.

No. III.-1850.

Extracts from DR. VOYSEY'S Private Journal when attached to the Trigonometrical Survey in Southern and Central India, No. II.

In Vol. XIII. of the Journal, p. 853, will be found the first of these papers, though in point of time the last. The Editor now proposes to complete the series much of which, in connection with the papers published by the late lamented Captain Newbold, will be found of great interest and importance in our present scanty knowledge of the geology of these extensive districts.-ED.

Extract from D. H.'s Manuscript.*

The mountainous tracts of which this Peninsula is composed, consist chiefly of primitive formations of which the old trap with all its subordinates is the principal.

The hills in general do not rise to any great perpendicular height, few are higher than 5000 feet and most only 1000 to 1500, and those close to the sea 5 to 600 feet.

The country south of the Krishna may be divided into the eastern coast, the table-land, and the Malabar coast.

The trap formation including the older, later and newest, is the most common, producing gold, diamonds, &c.

The coast between the sea and the mountains is low, although one occasionally meets with slight elevations of 50 or 100 feet.

The general ascent is indeed so trifling that although the ghauts are from 50 to 80 miles from the sea, their feet are seldom elevated more * It is not now known who this gentleman was, but Dr. Voysey, had evidently found this general sketch worth notice and the Editor has thus inserted it also. No. XXXIX. 2 c

than a few feet above it, this has been determined by actual measurement in the Godavery, Krishna and Cavery.

On the coast of Coromandel the first stratum which meets the eye is a moveable sand, interspersed with black particles of magnetic ironstone, common about Madras and sold in the Bazars under the name of Suranmmely.

Next is found a stiff loam very sterile, extending 2 miles inland, when other alluvia, such as sand, marl, disintegrated cale tuff, and a mixture of sienitic gravel, are seen in alternating strata.

The calc tuff is generally covered by a thick stratum of rich black mould, which appears to proceed from the quick destruction of the vegetables by the calc tuff. The marl is often 20 feet deep, and does not contain animal remains of any kind; rolled hornstone, fragments of sienite and pebbles are found in it. It very often covers the stratum in which the diamond is found.

The acclivities which are found along the coast about Madras and Nellore consist of iron clay used for bricks, Dr. B.'s laterite. The small pebbles or stones in it, resemble floetz greenstone: mica is also found near Pondicherry, and a secondary floetz lime with shells used for paving the streets.

In the vicinity near the sea are found remarkable petrifactions of large pieces of trunks and branches of tamarind wood.

Transition limestone is met with in some abundance, and in mountain masses near the Krishna at Chintapally. It might be taken for floetz limestone, but there are animal remains in it. Calc tuff and sienite are found, and a black limestone which burns white. About Lat. 13° 14'

N. mountains of transition flinty slate make their appearance 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The Pulicat hills.—They run in uninterrupted ranges from about 15 to 20 miles in the direction of the coast. The hill on which the Tripety Pagoda stands belongs to this rock and it further continues to the banks of the Pennar.

In the branch, south of Cuddappah which runs nearly east and west, I found small veins of plumbago. Sulphuret of lead with a large proportion of silver is found, 15 miles in a N. E. direction.

The flinty slate appears to rest on greenstone slate, which often makes its appearance in the Pallams, the Pulicat hills, and to the northward.