of a Route from Madras to Bellary> in 1 822. 357 



which places are on the same level, about 900 feet above the 

 sea. I was much disappointed in the height of the Nulla 

 Mulla range, which, at the point where I crossed, did not at- 

 tain an elevation of 1800 feet above the sea, and of little more, 

 therefore, than 800 feet above the plains on either side. 



The route across the plain, between the Nulla Mulla range 

 and the table land at Banaganapilly, is nearly level, and about 

 800 feet above the sea; but the general declination of this 

 plain appears to be _ from the Kistnah to the Pennar. 



From Banaganapilly to Jeldroogum the ascent along the 

 valley is pretty considerable, being 400 feet in about twenty 

 miles, or 20 feet per mile. 



The table land, commencing two or three miles west of Jel- 

 droogum, and extending to Piaplee, a distance of eight or ten 

 miles, is between 1700 and 1800 feet above the sea # ; and 

 Colonel Lambton has already stated that to be the mean height 

 of the country between Gootty and Bellaryf. 



Although granitic have been mentioned as the prevailing 

 rocks in the first division, none of them were seen in situ till 

 about the thirty-seventh mile, in the bed of the river at the 

 village of Nellatoor. The whole of the previous flat being a 

 loose sandy soil, entirely free from rocky masses, and even al- 

 most so of fragments, with the exception of some stony swells 

 to the north of Cunkama Choultry. I should observe, how- 

 ever, that all the pagodas, facings of tanks, &c ., were built 

 either of granite or laterite. 



The blocks forming these latter have a rolled appearance, 

 are a kind of coarse sandstone conglomerate or breccia, and 

 perhaps originate from, or are connected with, the mountain- 

 chain running north from Naggery Nose. The granite, which 

 first makes its appearance at Nellatoor, may be traced as far 

 as Curcumbaddy, with no other interruption save that of those 

 singular beds or courses of trap which are apparently so com- 

 mon in all the granitic tracts of this country. All these beds 

 appear to run nearly east and west. In the present instance 

 they were remarkably numerous, forming chains of low hills, 

 and crossing the route so frequently, as to occupy a space 

 which, taken in the aggregate, would nearly equal that of the 

 granite itself. Granite, however, evidently composes the great 

 mass of hills, which commence a few miles to the south-west 



* But there is a very rapid descent from Piaplee towards Gootty, of 400 

 or 500 feet in the first ten miles. The plains west of Gootty are about 

 1200 feet above the sea. 



•f This seems rather under the truth: — barometrical observations, which 

 I have since had an opportunity of making, give from 1400 to 1500 feet for 

 the mean altitude of the country between Gootty and the Hoggree river, 

 eight miles east of Bellary. 



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