'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎40] (55/496)

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the regions around rich and beautiful, abounding in rivers of water, and with a
fine healthy agreeable climate; the soil seems well suited for the growth of many
varieties of European vegetables. The arrangements now in progross will speedi
ly put it in the power of the inhabitants of Bombay to examine the country for
themselves. Twenty hours’ steam will carry them to Viziadroog ; thirty-three
miles of a road lead to Phoonda Ghaut, from which Belgaum and Kolapore are
quickly accessible. The specimens illustrative of the paper were portions of sili
ceous spar, agate, vessels very neatly made from pot-stone, conglomerates, lime*
stone, iron ore, shale, quartz, &c. &c.
^Erolite from near Dharwar. —The following letter was received from
Captain George Wingate, of the Bombay Engineers :—
“ I beg to transmit two fragments of an aerolite, which fell about one
o’clock p. m., of the 15th February last, in a field to the south of Negloor, a vil
lage situated within a few miles of the junction of the Wurda and Toomboodra
rivers, and belonging to the Gootul division of the Ranee-Bednoor talook of the
Dharwar collectorate.
4 ‘ The fall of this aerolite is most satisfactorily established. A cultivator of
Negloor, named Ninga, was driving his cattle out to graze close by where it fell,
at the hour above mentioned, when he suddenly heard a loud whirring rushing
noise in the air, but on looking up could see nothing. An instant afterwards,
however, he observed a cloud of dust rise from a spot in an adjoining field, as if
something had struck the ground there with violence. At this time several other
villagers were standing by a threshing-floor close at hand, who also heard the noise,
and one of them called out to Ninga asking whether he had also done so. He re
plied yes, and that something seemed to have fallen in the next field, where he
there are several others in a similar state. The thickness of the principal bed could not be as
certained, as it occupies the whole extent of the mine, but it is upwards of several hundred feet,
aC J\ erS ^ ^. oc ^ S ^. “The rock salt in colour varies from white to flesh or brick red,
OTmmentJ h LfSa= retl0nS + ben l g lar ^ e and ver T compact, so much so, that various
which w^p whit rftr i CU n .°- Ut lt * \ was P res . ent ed with a series of small vessels of it,
transnarent • ’ 111 P ie ces of about an inch in thickness it is transparent or semi-
r o13Tnd the , stalact itic form-several stalactites of a pure white
out India aX so W6re • br ° Ught to me< This salt is extensively used through
out maia, and is so pure as only to require grinding.
particular^state of sto0( J ^ sliad e at 45°, in the mine at 82° ; but owing to the
natives informed me that’iii a J?P ea r ed be much more ; to health it is most prejudicial; the
«™«wap as*
:i in rh^^ectfo^for^rTh^Thr whi ii h the strata bear to each other is well
Sail- r>nr> • v- it ’ -ivcsnug upon il we Aim
imbedded masses in the mark "in color the^aatmo^’ G ^P sum does not occur in beds, bu
superincumbent rock there is a breccia consisting W g n een, § r f yish wllite > &c • Forming th(
stone, held together by calcareous mai/pr n, i red sandstone, marl, gypsum, and lime
at Jelalpore, and, like it, the limestone boulders contain !? ^ 1 t nconfo y mable position, as the rocl
they occur as to lead to the supposition that it wvJ organic remains, and m such quantity dc
formed through the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the fossil animals «f,? n ab ? 10 f entirely, though not exclusively
with the microscope, which have bromrht to n Smco the brilliant discoveries of Ehrenber^
nis calx e vermibus; omnis silex e vermibus^omnis ferrun7° rld of animals ’ the old dogma, onr
the size of these animals is sometimes so very minutltha? has been a ^ aiu revived
may occur in a cubic inch of chalk But it kIo tbat Fhrenberg has proved that a milhor
always bear the same proportion in chalk frorn riitv 11 p f roved tba t the organic matter does noi
North of Europe thequLtity of ino^ ; ~ thus ’ ^ specimens from tin
but in specimens from the South of Europe the aibnSi lk ex( r eeds th at of the organic bodies
berg, m his work on the animalcular consdfntinn nf Ju, al n re ? lams lar gely predominate. Ehren-
ammaicuiar constitution of chalk, describes and figures specimens froir