The great outpourings of augitic lava of Tertiary and recent times which we have been considering appear to have been anticipated in several parts of the world, more especially in Peninsular India and in Africa, and it is desirable that we should devote a few pages to the description of these remarkable volcanic formations, as they resemble, both in their mode of occurrence and general structure, some of the great lava-floods of a more recent period we have been considering. Of the districts to be described, the first which claims our notice is the Deccan.

(a.) Extent of the Volcanic Plateau.—The volcanic plateau of the Deccan stretches from the borders of the Western Ghats and the sea-coast near Bombay inland to Amarantak, at the head of the Narbudda River (long. 82° E.), and from Belgaum (lat. 15° 31' N.) to near Goona (lat. 24° 30'). The vast area thus circumscribed is far from representing the original extent of the tract overspread by the lava-floods, as outlying fragments of these lavas are found as far east as long. 84° E. in one direction, and at Kattiwar and Cutch in another. The present area, however, is estimated to be not less than 200,000 square miles.[1]

(b.) Nature and Thickness of the Lava-flows.—This tract is overspread almost continuously by sheets of basaltic lava, with occasional bands of fresh-water strata containing numerous shells, figured and described by Hislop, and believed by him to be of Lower Eocene age. The lava-sheets vary considerably in character, ranging from finest compact basalt to coarsely crystalline dolerite, in which olivine is abundant. The columnar structure is not prevalent, the rock being either amorphous, or weathering into concentric shells. Volcanic ash, or bole, is frequently found separating the different lava-flows; and in the upper amygdaloidal sheets numerous secondary minerals are found, such as quartz, agate and jasper, stilbite and chlorite. The total thickness of the whole series, where complete, is about 6,000 feet, divided as follows:

Throughout the region here described these great sheets of volcanic rock are everywhere approximately horizontal, and constitute a table-land of 3,000 to 4,000 feet in elevation, breaking off in terraced escarpments, and penetrated by deep river-valleys, of which the Narbudda is the most important. The foundation rock is sometimes metamorphic schist, or gneiss, at other times sandstone referred by Hislop to Jurassic age; and in no single instance has a volcanic crater or focus of eruption been observed. But outside the central trappean area volcanic foci are numerous, as in Cutch, the Rajhipla Hills and the Lower Narbudda valley. The original excessive fluidity of the Deccan trap is proved by the remarkable horizontality of the beds over large areas, and the extensive regions covered by very thin sheets of basalt or dolerite.

(c.) Geological Age.—As regards the geological age of this great volcanic series much uncertainty exists, owing to the absence of marine forms in the inter-trappean beds. One single species, Cardita variabilis, has been observed as occurring in these beds, and in the limestone below the base of the trap at Dudukur. The facies of the forms in this limestone is Tertiary; but there is a remarkable absence of characteristic genera. On the other hand, Mr. Blanford states that the bedded traps are seen to underlie the Eocene Tertiary strata with Nummulites in Guzerat and Cutch,[2] which would appear to determine the limit of their age in one direction. On balancing the evidence, however, it is tolerably clear that the volcanic eruptions commenced towards the close of the Cretaceous period, and continued into the commencement of the Tertiary, thus bridging over the interval between the two epochs; and since the greater sheets have been exposed throughout the whole of the Tertiary and Quarternary periods, it is not surprising if they have suffered enormously from denuding agencies, and that any craters or cones of eruption that may once have existed have disappeared.