up by Calder, and put forth by Mr. Conybeare, it must be remarked that, hitherto, no decided volcanic product has been discovered in laterite, no crater or other proof of such origin. It is true, it is frequently seen overlying trap rocks; but it also overlies granite, hypogene strata, sandstone, and limestone, and in none is it ever seen as a dyke; nor are there any signs of forcible intrusion or alteration. In one hand specimen that fell under my observation, the laterite appeared to have intruded into and shattered the sandstone; but in every instance where I have had an opportunity of seeing veins, if they may be so termed, of the laterite in other rocks, in sitù, they have occurred as deposits from above, into preexisting chinks of the subjacent rocks, like the conglomerate which fills fissures in the limestone of Petit Tor; and never injected from below, as is the case with volcanic rocks. "Fragments of trappean, and other rocks, occasionally are imbedded in the laterite; as also in the subjacent sandstone, and in other rocks confessedly of aqueous origin. Cases occur where basalt underlying the trap as at Beder, has the appearance of passing into it: but this, on minute examination, turns out to be a confused blending of the debris of both rocks near their junction; from which distinct and uumixed fragments of either sort could be separated, like bits of granite from the breccias that are usually found near the junction of the latter with sandstone. In many localities, however, the line of demarcation between the laterite and overlying trap is clear and decided. "Some geologists suppose that laterite is nothing more than granitic, hypogene, and trappean rocks weathered in sitû. The facts of its imbedding erratic frag ments of sandstone, at the Red Hills near Madras, where it rests on granite, and, its interstratified beds of lignite and silicified wood, militate strongly against this theory. Besides, nothing is more common in lateritic tracts than to see a hill of granite, trap, or hypogene rock, capped with a thick crust of laterite; while the adjacent hills, composed of an exactly similar rock, and forming a continuation of the same bed, equally exposed to the action of the weather, are quite bare of laterite. I have examined many beds of it resting on trap, aud amygdaloid im◄ bedding calcedonies, heliotrope, and jasper, but have not hitherto detected in the upper or middle beds of the former, any fragments of these hard siliceous minerals which are found to resist successfully the attrition of the most rapid streams of India, and have been carried by them across the peninsula to the ocean. "I have seen laterite, too, resting on limestone, without any traceable lime in its composition: aud containing veins of manganese, when resting on a trap in which hitherto the existence of this mineral has not been detected: facts, proving that the overlying laterite was not the upper portions of these rocks_weathered in situ. "I have often observed, particularly in the Western Ghauts, and on the Malabar and Concan coasts, where the rains fall heaviest, those granitic, hypogene, and trappean rocks, which contain most iron, weather into ferruginous and coloured + elays, that sometimes lithologically speaking, resemble laterite; and, when that "When we look up from the microscopic view afforded by these slowly weathering blocks of rock and beds of ore, and cast our eyes upon even the present extent of laterite over the surface of India, the thickness of its beds, its flat-topped ranges of hills, and the gaps effected in their continuity, evidently by aqueous causes no longer in action, its occasionally imbedding waterworn pebbles of distant rocks, its often elevated position above the present drainage level of the country, its beds of lignite and silicified wood, we find no more reason for attributing its origin to the weathering of rocks in situ, or to their detritus transported by causes now in action, than for attributing the formation of the older sandstones to the present disintegration of the granitic and hypogene rocks, of the detritus of which they were doubtless, as well as the laterite, formed originally. the latente wh overlies all'an old rock "The supposed non-fossiliferous character of this rock, which has puzzled many geologists, and inclined others to the theory of its ancient or volcanic origin, may in some measure be attributed to its highly ferriferous nature, often approaching that of an oxide of iron. It is a general fact, and, as Lyell observes, one not yet accounted for, that scarcely any fossil remains are preserved in stratified rocks in which the oxide of iron (derived from the disintegration of hornblende or mica) abounds: and when we find fossils in the new or old red sandstones of England, it is in the grey, and usually calcareous beds that they occur. It is well known, too, that some of the more recent tertiary deposits of Europe are entirely divested of fossils. "As this singular variety of ferruginous clay and sandstone has not been mentioned by geological writers on other countries than those I have alluded to, it may be presumed that laterite either does not exist under this form at all, or in such small patches as not to have attracted remark. The question naturally suggests itself, why this cellular rock should be confined to India, &c. The solution may be in the highly ferriferous nature of the plutonic, trappean, and hypogene rocks, from which the laterite has confessedly been derived, and in the supposition of a segregation and subsequent re-arrangement of the different mineral particles in the substance of the rock itself, by a process in nature's laboratory, approaching to crystallization, better known than explained or understood. If electricity, which is probable, has any share in exciting this movement and attraction in the mineral particles of the rock, its metallic nature affords a favorable condition for the active development of this powerful agent. The structure of the rock has received some modification from the action of water, in emptying its shells and carrying their contents to the lower parts of the beds. Age. Having said thus much to warrant the classification of laterite among rocks of an aqueous and mechanical origin, I shall proceed to remark that in age, relatively to other rocks of Southern India, it is older than the regur and kunkur, which it underlies, and of more recent origin than the overlying trap, the shell limestone of Pondicherry, and the diamond sandstone and limestone, on all of which it is superimposed. It has never been invaded by the dykes of trap that penetrate the latter rocks-the hypogene and plutonic rocks,-fragments of all which it sometimes imbeds, but is evidently contemporaneous with the efforts, or series of efforts, by which the Western Ghauts were lifted above the waters; since it is seen capping their summits, often shattered into large irregular blocks, Gicted kuningan accompa minent of ferrugi -nous red clay, fudbals wolord A changed sandsline? and stretching more continuously, and with less signs of disturbance, from their base to the sea. "From the non-altered state of the laterite at its junction with the granite, and the imbedded fragments of the latter rock, as well as of fragments of the trap dykes, it may be inferred that both granite and the associated trap dykes were elevated iu a solid state. I have classed the laterite as more recent than the Nirmul fresh-water cherts and limestones, on account of the latter rocks having been invaded aud altered by trappean intrusion." THE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY. THE School of Industry has been so repeatedly referred to that a passing notice of the establishment may be pardoned. In 1846 it appeared by returns made to Government that upwards of 200 boys, betwixt the ages of twelve and sixteen years, were picked up annually by the police, for the most part on charges of petty offences against property and that those sentenced to punishment were in general sent to Gaol or the House of Correction, to herd with proficients in villainy, and return to the streets to resume depredations, hardened and perfected in crime. The bulk of these were orphans or destitutes. They had no one to advise them, look after them, or provide for them; and were in the majority of cases believed to have betaken themselves to thieving, either under the pressure of want, or at the instigation of more matured and hardened culprits, who meant to share in the spoils thus obtainable with comparatively little danger, as the punishment of children, even if detected, was not to be compared to what would have been inflicted on older rogues. A considerable body of gentlemen having subscribed for the establishment of a School of Industry, for the reception of juvenile culprits, sentenced by the Magistrates of Police, the Court of Directors were applied to, and at once conceded a Superin tendent free of charge. Arrangements for starting the project were made in May 1850, and notwithstanding the interruption occasioned immediately afterwards by the Monsoon, the whole was in operation by January 1851. There are at present (May 1852) 56 boys on the list,-these live on the establishment, and are carefully looked after, clothed, and fed. They are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, by a naive schoolmaster, and instructed by workmen employed on purpose in any handicraft for which they feel disposed. The trades taught are brick-making and pottery-work, drawing, weaving, carpentry blacksmith-work, both forging and finishing; brass-casting, and turning both wood and metal, plain weaving, on the native as well as the English Byshuttle loom, and coarse mat-making. They work from 9 A. M. till 5 P. M. daily -including in this the two hours at school, and are nearly all making most creditable progress. There being a demand in Bombay for the more commou kinds of wood-cut and metal engraving, lithography, and simple colouring, five of the boys were selected for instruction in this, it is the first department of the establishment that has met its own charges, and is now yielding a small profit to the School. Availing myself of the very trifling expense at which illustrations could be got coloured, (Rs. 1 a 100 on an average) I have indulged somewhat more freely in them than I otherwise would have done, and have to bespeak the reader's forbearance with the quality of the work, considering the source whence it is derived. The youngsters now cheerful, well-behaved and happy, honestly earning their bread in furnishing illustrations to a treatise on geology, were a few months since the pests at once and victims of of society, living on plunder-their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them. At present they are only beginning to learn; but I have deemed the illustrations procured through their industry better than none at all; and it would scarcely have been worth while to have incurred the expense of providing them through the only other sources at command, that of regularly trained draftsmen. REPORT ON THE HEAVY RAIN IN SCINDE-JULY AND AUGUST, 1851. 239 ART. V.-A report on the heavy rain in Scinde, in July and August, 1851, and its effects on cultivation &c., in the Kurrachee Collectorate. Forwarded by H. B. FRERE, Commissioner in Scinde. THE late heavy rain commenced almost simultaneously every where in the Kurrachee Collectorate on the 6th July last, and continued to fall with short intermissions, up to the 4th ultimo. Such rain, it is generally stated, has not been experienced in this province for at least thirty years. 2. It may perhaps be worth noticing that throughout the above period (during which time I was occupied in visiting the Bunds &c., between Ghorabharree and Kotree near Hyderabad) I frequently observed, although a steady wind blew from the Southwest, the clouds invariably to come up from the East and Northeast, and to pass over the level country with a gyratory progression to the Southeast; apparently turned off towards the latter direction by the Western hills. When the wind blew only from the north there was generally a cessation of rain. 3. The destruction of the Khurreef cultivation in the lower portion or Delta of the Indus, first occasioned by the extraordinary rise of the river must have been rendered complete by the subsequent rain, and as a consequence the scarcity of rice, the great material of food on which all the inhabitants of that part subsist, will be severely felt by the poorer classes. 4. In the pergunnah of Ghorabharree the present Khurreef may be reported as entirely destroyed, and I believe much property has been lost or injured through the combined effects of the inundation and rain. 5. The ensuing Rubbee may doubtless be plentiful, but the produetions of that season in the above districts will not reconcile the cultivators to the loss they have sustained, or tend much to relieve those who are wholly dependent on the Khurreef for their annual subsistence. 6. The town of Ghorabharree must have also suffered from the rain which fell, after I left it on the 9th of July. During my stay there, I observed that its low situation rendered it liable to be swept away by an extraordinary rise in the waters of the Oochta and Sehwan, and particularly that of the latter branch. It was only saved this season by the vigilance of the Kardar, and the people who watched over the Bund raised for its protection, for I have seen the water rise to within a few inches of the top of the embankment. 7. This town is made still more unfit as a place of abode, in consequence of the numerous pits and hollows, which the people have dug from the earth to build their houses; as many of these hollows are situated in the Town, and within the embankment from whence there is no escape for the accumulated rain water, until the river subsides; and then only a small portion can be let off; so that what with putrid filth, and stagnant water there is every reason to conceive that this place alone must engender and contribute to spread abroad much of that deleterious miasma which produces disease, suffering, and death. 8. The practice of interment in the immediate vicinity, and often in the midst of towns so very prevalent in this country, but which I beg to submit, ought under no pretence to be tolerated, will, I fear, this season, also prove noisome, and injurious to those who are within reach of the pernicious effluvia arising therefrom. 9. All the low grounds in the Pergunnals of Syathree, Gharka, and 1 Beronath have been flooded, partly by the river near its banks, but in the interior chiefly by the rain, and much cultivation has been destroyed-principally that of rice. 10. The Saline matter washed down from the higher grounds, has also conduced to destroy, or as the cultivators say "burn up" a portion of the crops in these Pergunnahs. 11. In Beronath however the land which has been inundated will afford an opportunity for extending cultivation as soon as the waters dry up, and the soil being of a better description than below, will probably yield a plentiful and valuable Rubbee. 12.-The Bughaur appeared to flow freely, and to draw in a supply of water which would have proved ample for the wants of the cultivated lands dependant on it in the interior, but the continued rain this season has in many instances rendered what would have been otherwise beneficial, either useless or only another source of misfortune. This branch however did not seem to me to indicate much the unusual rise in the |