136 CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF S. INDIA. [PaRT II. § 1. 



Valuta, Natica, Chemnitzia, Nerita, Acteonella, Ostrea, Lima, Pinna, Lucina, Astarte, 

 Cytherea, NucJeolites and Spatangus with Serpula, and some fossil wood. 



A considerable thickness of red sandy clay, alternating with coarse white sandy shales, 

 succeeds the fossil band, and passes into the irregular deposits of sands and sandy clay, 

 (containing the remains of the Megalosaurus,) which forms the Northern continuation of the 

 beds alluded to at page 134, and the consideration of which I have deferred. 



I have now brought the description of the whole of the lower fossiliferous beds up to the 



North of Kurribiem and Poi°* ^* which I left that of the lowest beds at page 134, and 

 Coothoor. tQ these therefore we may now return. For about 2 miles to 



the North of Coothoor, and about 4 miles to the North of Kurribiem, (where I left the 

 lower beds), the cotton soil conceals the Cretaceous rocks. In the nullah that runs past 

 Veraghoor, and which cuts through all these three groups, we again meet with the lowest 

 beds of that under consideration, and obtain a tolerable section of rather more than' a mile 

 in length. 



The bottom bed of the group crosses the bed of the nullah about half a mile East of 

 Veraghoor. It is a soft, (decomposed,) grey saudstone, contain- 

 ing many of the most characteristic fossils of the fonnation, and 

 dipping about 3° to the East by South. Among the fossils occurring in this bed are a Crania, 

 neai'ly allied to if not identical with C. Iguabergensis, and the two small corals, Fungia 

 filamentosa, Forbes ? {Cydoseris filamentosa , Milne Edwards et Haime,) and Turbinolia 

 Arcotensis, Forbes, ( Trochosimilia Arcotensis, Milne Edwards et Haime,) both characteristic 

 of the Arrialoor beds of Pondicheriy. 



This fossil bed is succeeded by a considerable thickness of shales, having a somewhat 

 higher dip, about 6°, and these are followed by some coarse 

 white and tinted sands, or friable sandstones, which are exposed 

 in the large nullah South-west of Vaitagoody ; but the section is by no means continuous. Some 

 fossiliferous bands are intercalated with them, and one which is exposed in the same nullah, 

 afforded some fossils similar to those of the bottom bed. On the ridge to the East of Vaita- 

 goody, similar sandstones are exposed in one or two places in wells. They are sometimes 

 fine in grain, and shaly, but unfossiliferous. About a mile farther to the Eastward calcareous 

 bands, (probably the contimiation of those at Ootacoil,) are exposed in a nirllah to the East of 

 Kaudoor ; and at some other points fui-ther up the same nullah, the direction of which nearly 



Beds of Kaudoor and Choc- coincides with their strike : also near the village of Chockanada- 

 kanadapuram. puram ; at all of which locaHties some characteristic fossils ai'e met 



with, chiefly the species of JVucleolites and Spatangus. Inoceramus, both entire and in a fragmen- 

 taiy condition, abounds wherever other fossils are met with, and Bryozoa, both attached and fi-ee 

 forms, are veiy common. Terebratula, probably T. arabilis., Forbes, Gryphcea stomatoidea, 

 Forbes, and Ostrea tegulanea, Forbes, are all common and characteristic of the group. 



To the North of Kaudoor, the beds I have been describing begin to disappear beneath the 

 thick covering of alluvium and regur, which fill the valley of 

 the Vellaui". The bottom beds indeed are exposed at intervals 

 up to within 3 miles of the river, protected apparently from denudation by the Ootatoor 

 limestone ridge upon which they rest. But the higher beds, consisting, as we have seen, 

 chiefly of unconsolidated sands, and soft friable shales, have been largely denuded, and subse- 

 quently covered with regur ; and although they may be seen occasionally in native wells and 



