Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s7.t5.70

v2.c27.s7.t5.70

Ajmer.—December 2.—Ajmer, three coss. Proceeded up the valley, where lofty barriers on either side, covered with the milky thor (cactus),² and the “yellow anwla of the border,” showed they were but the prolongation of our own Aravalli. Granite appeared of every hue, but of a stratification so irregular as to bid defiance to the geologist. The higher we ascended the valley, the loftier became the sand-hills, which appeared to aspire to the altitude of their granitic neighbours. A small rill poured down the valley ; there came also a cold blast from the north, which made our fingers tingle. Suddenly we changed our direction from north to east, and ascending the mountain, surveyed through a gap in the range the far-famed Daru-l-Khair. The view which thus suddenly burst upon us was magnificent. A noble plain, with trees, and the expansive lake of Bisaladeva, lay at our feet, while ‘ the fortress of the goatherd ’ crowned the crest of a majestic isolated hill. The point of descent affords a fine field for the mineralogist ; on [777] each side, high over the pass, rise peaks of reddish granite, which are discovered half-way down the descent to be reposing on a blue micaceous slate, whose inclination is westward, at an angle of about 25° with the horizon. The formation is the same to the southward, but the slate there is more compact, and freer from mica and quartz. I picked up a fragment of black marble ; its crystals were large and brilliant.