PHYSICAL ASPECTS 127
they still maintain their former physical conformation. A north-westerly
arm reaches up to Bhopal city, but is concealed by basalt, except in
the region lying immediately east and south-east of the city, where its
highest beds, of upper Bandair sandstone, are well exposed along the
axis of the synclinal fold, the original cover of basalt having here been
removed by subaerial denudation. East and west of the main outcrop
the denudation is less complete, and the table-land is often crowned
with a highly ferruginous laterite. The basalts met with are petrologi-
cally of great interest, varying considerably in constitution, coarse, fine-
grained, compact, and vesicular varieties being all met with. The
vesicular basalts often contain geodes a to 3 feet in diameter, full of
crystals of zeolite, and intertrappean fresh-water beds, with fossil spores
of aquatic plants of the genus Chara.
Many of the stones are of great economic value. The Kaimur sand-
stone has been extensively quarried, and yields an admirable stone for
building and ornamental purposes; the upper Rewah formation, which
furnishes flagstones of great size, and the Bandairs are also much
used. The lower Bandairs are here of a very fine and even grain, quite
unlike the coarse gritty stone of this formation met with in Bundel-
khand and Baghelkhand, and are thus a most valuable source of
building material. A dark purple-red stone of fine grain found in the
upper Bandairs has been used in many buildings.
Another deposit, of which, however, adequate commercial advantage
has not as yet been taken, is the limestone rock at Ginnurgarh, which
is over ioo feet thick and admirably suited for burning for lime.
The flora of the sandstone region differs markedly from that on the
Deccan trap area. In the former the jungle is much closer, trees are
more abundant and of a much greater variety. On the trap area the
trees consist mainly of acacias and d&zk (Butea frondosa), the change to
a sandstone soil being at once signalled by the presence of teak, tendtie
(Diospyros tomentosa), sdl (Shorea robusta), and salai (Boswellia serrata).
Other species met with are Terminalia, Anogeissus, Stephegyne, and
Buchanania, often interspersed with stretches of Dendrocalamus stricius.
The undergrowth contains Zizyphus, Capparis, Grezelia, Casearia,
Phyllanthus, Antidesma, Carissa, and other species.
The jungle in the sandstone area affords ample cover to wild animals,
tigers, leopards, sdntbar (Cervus unicolor), and chital (Cervus axis)
being common. Formerly bison (Bos gaurus) were found in the south
of the State, but they are now almost, if not entirely, extinct in this
region. All the ordinary wild-fowl are found, duck and snipe in large
numbers frequenting the big tank to the west of the city.
The climate in most of the State is the same as that of Malwa, but
in the hilly region to the south greater extremes of heat and cold are
encountered. The rainfall recorded at Bhopal city gives an average of
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