MANUAL OP THE NILAaiKI DISTRICT. 95 



the financial success of any scheme for smelting it. Much quartz CHAP. V. 



occurs, but though very white and free from iron, it is geology and 



pronounced ^' not sufficiently pellucid to be of any value for Mineralogy, 



optical purposes.'^ Attention has already been called to the 



probable economic value of some highly- colored iron ores and 



clays for pigments or pottery. Garnets, as already stated, 



abound in some of the gneiss, and in the Madras Museum there 



is a small piece of pot-stone, the lajpis ollaris of the ancietits, 



said to have been found on the range. Peat occurs in many 



of the valleys, and for years past has been cut and used as 



fuel. 



Such is an imperfect summary of the results of the geological 

 survey. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. King, of the 

 Geological Survey, for the additional interesting note which has 

 special reference to the Ouchterlony Valley and to the gold 

 prospects of the Nilagiri range. 



Additional note on the rocks of the Nilagiris and adjacent 

 country. 



Since Mr. H. F. Blandford's Memoir on the Nilagiri hills was 

 written, the only further exploration of the country adjacent to 

 the plateau proper was that made in 1874 during the survey 

 of Wainad, at which time the Ouchterlony Valley was cursorily 

 visited to note any extension of the Ddvala gold-reefs. 



The rocks of the Ouchterlony Valley belong, as might be Rocks of the 

 expected, to the same series as the rest of the Nilagiris, though ^^^^ey. 

 they are mainly of that particular variety of quartzo-hornhlendic 

 gneiss, constituting two or more of the several belts ^ or bands 

 of the gneiss family of which this range of mountains is made 

 up. Here, as on the upland, the foliation has a north-east — south- 

 west strike, this being also the lie or direction of the belt across 

 the valley, while the general dip is very high (oO°-70^) to the 

 south-east. 



Folding and even reduplication of the strata is often visible, 

 thus presenting local variations in both dip and strike ; but the 

 general lie is as given above. 



The great band strikes right across the valley from the Moyar 

 on the north by Neduwattam to the plains of Malabar below the 

 Kundas and is about six miles in width, and is bounded on 

 the north-west side by a further belt of felsimthic and chloritic 

 gneisses in the country west of Gudaliir and towards Nadgani 

 and Devala. The general term quartzo-hornhlendic gneiss is 



' The same or nearly the same variety of gneiss forma what may be called 

 the Doddabetta and Elk Hill belt on the Nilagiri plateau. 



