152 CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF S. INDIA. [PaRT II. § 2. 



the Ariancoopum. A good pucka bungalow, very convenient for the 

 Geological visitor, existed here five or six years ago, but being at some 

 distance from any of the main lines of road, it has now been disman- 

 tled, and, at the date of my last visit, in the beginning of 1860, was no 

 lono-er habitable. Valudayur is still, however, an important village, and 

 beincT surrounded by some magnificent groves, is a convenient place for 

 encampment, from which to visit the fossiliferous localities first brought 

 to notice by Messrs. Kaye and Cunllffe. Being situated near the 

 extremity of the Cretaceous rocks, it is also the most convenient point 

 from which to commence their detailed description. 



About half a mile to the East of Valudayur, after crossing a deep 

 Fossiliferous beds of ^^ter channel, excavated by the French Go- 

 Valudayur. vernment for the supply of the great Ossatary 



tank, we meet with a low rocky bank, formed by a yellow calcareous con- 

 glomerate full of fossils, as is evidenced by its stony debris abundantly 

 scattered around. The imbedded pebbles are of various sizes, up to 8 

 or 10 inches in diameter, well rounded, and consisting principally of a 

 compact grey limestone, as is seen when some of the larger of them are 

 broken across ; for they are for the most part so much weathered, that 

 they bear more resemblance to the marl nodules of the Ootatoor group 

 of Trichinopoly, than to the original rock from which they are derived, 

 and which crops out near the base of the conglomerate a little way to 

 the North-east. A few pebbles of gneiss and quartz also occur, and 

 the coarse sandy matrix, which constitutes the mass of the bed, consists 

 of the same materials. The fossils are very abundant, and generally 

 well preserved, but can only be extracted in good 



A I'fifilooi' ft)SSiis 



condition when the matrix is somewhat decom- 

 posed. Turritella monilifera, (a species which in Trichinopoly has only 

 been found in the Garoodamungalum limestone, and beds of the same 

 group) ; and a small unribbed Area, A. Gamana, Forbes, are perhaps 

 the most common. Fungia filamentosa and Ostrea stomatoidea, both 



