'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎235] (368/458)

m
lr sin other locality f
ns ^0 be rather cm!
um and Qailon, It|
mated very genrii
out twenty-five ife
plialt, sulphur, h,
al, near Eeypooriii
ise sandstone, Uai
ately itnbed(lefiiiili|'
aiuingscattere(lsfii; :
were
LATERITE.
* surface as a glittering reddish-brown coating The woody structure was, in
general, sufficiently distinct to show that the principal trees imbedded were di
cotyledonous. Impressions of leaves and stems of plants were abundant between
the layers of shale ; but I did not observe any of the dicotyledonous seeds which
occur in the lignite beds of Travaucore. Some were perfectly black ; others of
different shades of brown exhibiting different degrees of carbonization. A portion
of a black carbonized leaf burnt slowly with a slight flame into a reddish ash
white on the edges. This being subjected to the reducing flame melted on its
i edges partly into a greenish enamel, and partly into a dark slag affected by the
-magnet.
“ The imbedding black shale decrepitated slightly before whiteness, emitting
an odour like that of burning coal. It finally fused on the edges into a light
greenish*grey enamel, slightly magnetic. The most resinous portions of the car
bonized wood burned with a clear flame and bituminous odour, into a white ash:
while those in which the elasticity of the woody fibre was less impaired, scarcely
gave out any aflame at all, burning into a reddish-brown cinder. The odour
emitted, however, resembled that of coal more than that of burning charcoal. The
cinder fused before the blow-pipe, after giving out two or three bubbles of gas,
into a black slag readily attracted by the magnet. The yellowish cauliflower-like
efflorescence on the surface of the carbonaceous bed emitted distinct fumes of
sulphur on being subjected to the oxidizing flame; melting, after considerable
gaseous extrication, into a dark cinnabar-red globule, which, on being subjected to
the reducing flame, was converted, with diminutiou of bulk, into a black magnetic
slag.
“ The change of colour and driving off the carbonaceous matter by heat, tended
greatly to develop© vegetable character, fibre, &c., where none was before appa
rent, or very obscurely so. The specific gravity of the heavier portions is 1*270,
slightly exceeding the average specific gravity of coal, which is 1*250. This
deposit of vegetable matter has evidently been made tranquilly, from the flat
horizontal position of the layers of leaves and stems.
“ Since writing the above, General Cullen informs me that he now sees mucli
of the carbonaceous deposit in Travancore, and that it is very extensive. It ex
hibits itself in beds of black clay and lignite, of from fifty to sixty feet thick, in
some places 200 feet, along the laterite cliffs at Yenkully, for a distance of three
miles; in fact, all along the coast from Quilon to Yenkully. Deposits of the same
kind occur about the same level, at the distance of two or three miles in land. A
similar deposit is seen on the sea shore, about thirty miles south of Travandrum*
The trunks, or rather their fragments, were both of monocotyledonous and
dicotyledonous wood in a state of perfect carbonization, and abounded with
sulphuret of iron.
“Origin,—Writers on Indian geology are divided in opinion as to the origin
sflaterite, With regard to the igneous theory as originated by Yoysey, taken