d
been deposited, and I found a grove of silicified palm-trees within a
mile of the cantonments. These palm-trees had grown upon a calcareous
deposit formed from springs rising out of the basaltic range of hills
to the south. The commissariat officer had cut a road through this
grove, and all the European officers of a large military station had
been every day riding through it without observing the geological
treasure; and it was some time before I could convince them that the
stones which they had every day seen were really petrified palm-
trees. The roots and trunks were beautifully perfect.[l6]

Notes:

1. November, 1835.

2. In the Damoh District, twenty-four miles west of Damoh. The name
appears to be derived from the 'great quantity of hewn stone (Hind.
_patthar_ or _pathar_) lying about in all directions'. The _C. P.
Gazetteer_ (1870) calls the place 'a considerable village'.

3. A peculiar formation, of 'widespread occurrence in the tropical
and subtropical regions of the world'. It is ordinarily of a reddish
ferruginous or brick-dust colour, sometimes deepened into dark red.
Apparently the special character which distinguishes laterite from
other forms of red-coloured weathering is the presence of hydrous
oxide of alumina in varying proportions. . . . 'Though there is still
a great deal of uncertainty about the way in which laterite was
formed, the facts which are known of its distribution seem to show
that it is a distinct form of weathering, which is confined to low
latitudes and humid climates; its formation seems to have been a slow
process, only possible on flat or nearly flat surfaces, where surface
rain-wash could not act' (Oldham, in _The Oxford Survey of the
British Empire_, vol. ii, Asia, p. 10: Oxford, 1914). It hardens and
darkens by exposure to air, and is occasionally used as a building
stone.

4. The Sagar mint was erected in 1820 by Captain Presgrave, the assay
master, and used to employ four hundred men, but, after about ten or
twelve years, the business was transferred to Calcutta, and the
buildings converted to other uses (_C. P. Gazetteer_, 1870). Mints
are now kept up at Calcutta and Bombay only. The Bias is a small
stream flowing into the Sunar river, and belonging to the Jumna river
system. The name is printed Beeose in the original edition.

5. Since the author's time the conditions have been completely
changed by the introduction of railways. The East Indian, Great
Indian Pe