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



as I have already remarked, in the great majority of cases they are 

 unfossiliferous. Owing to this, and to their being tough under the 

 hammer, fossil searching requires much time and large hammers for 

 its successful prosecution. Indeed, so far as I am able to judge, the 

 fossiliferous band occurs only near the overlap of the Arrialoor group, 

 for all the concretions that 1 have seen elsewhere exhibited, when 

 fractured, no trace of fossil remains. Above the fossil band there 

 appears to be a mass of silty beds without nodules which are seen 

 exposed only in the low ground North of Sydrapet tank. From the 

 absence of any marked stratification, it is impossible to determine 

 their total thickness. 



The beds of the Arrialoor group are in general better exposed than 

 P A--' 1 those of the low^er group. The bed of calcare- 

 gi^'^P- ous sandstone at its base may be clearly traced 



from Valudayur as far as Royapoothoopakkum ; its out-crop projecting 

 above the soil, and being elsewhere traceable by the abundance of its 

 calcareous debris ; its appearance in the neighbourhood of Valudayur has 

 been already described. It is also well seen on the summit of the 

 slope to the West of Sydrapet tank, where it 



^ ^^^^ ' appears to cap the hill, the surface of which ia 



pitted all over by the little excavations of native quarrymen. From 

 this point the bed may be traced round to the corner of the tank 

 bund, beyond which it disappears beneath the soil, but there is 

 good reason to believe, from the character of the surface, that the 

 whole of the beds to the "West of Ossatary tank are an isolated 

 outlier capping the high ground. 



The bed is again seen as a thick bedded calcareous sandstone at the- 

 Western end of Kurasure tank bund. It has a high dip to the West, 

 not less than 20°, but this is evidently quite local, for in the village of 

 Sydrapet, only half a mile distant, it is nearly or quite horizontal, 

 and elsewhere the dip is but small. From Sydrapet it strikes very 



