206 CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF S. INDIA. [PaKT III. 



directions, is easily quarried. It is worked for the household purposes 

 above-mentioued, and is also used to some extent for dry walling. The 

 iriile-stones on the roads about Verdachellum are also made of this 

 stone. It appears to be well adapted for building, but I am not aware 

 that it has ever been employed for this purpose. 



Laterite is largely used for building wherever it occurs. Its chief 

 localities are at Vullam in Tanjore, and Strimus- 

 trum, in the North-east of Trichinopoly. I have 

 also noticed it at several places between Tanjore and Trichinopoly, and 

 at Andanapet, to the East of Verdachellum, and it probably covers a great 

 part of the Cuddalore sandstones concealed beneath the red soil. At 

 Yullam it is cut with a chisel-pointed crowbar, into blocks 2 feet 6 inches 

 long, 1 foot wide, and 6 inches thick. It is, when first extracted, a flaky 

 ferruginous sandy clay, and rather friable, but when exposed for some 

 months to the action of the rain and sun, as is usually the case before it 

 is used for building, it hardens and becomes covered with a dark polished 

 encrustation of hydrated oxide of iron, which protects it from further 

 change, and resists the decay of the stone, however long it may be 

 exposed. At Vullam it is much used by the natives, in building 

 their houses, in preference to brick, and the Vellaur annicut at 

 Chetia-tope, near Blionagiri, is built in part of this rock quarried 

 at Strimustrum.* 



Laterite, as is well known in India, makes an excellent road-metalling 

 when not required to stand the wear and tear of 

 heavy traffic. A lateritic gravel is much used for 

 this purpose, when the solid laterite is not procurable, as on the Madras 

 and Trichinopoly road, between the Vellaur and the Puniar, and on the 

 Madras and Pondicherry road to the North of the latter place. In the 

 former case, it is obtained from pits near Anawari, to the South of the 



* At Andanapet I noticed some carved blocks forming part of an old and ruined pagoda, 

 the mouldings of which were as perfect as when first cut. Omng to its porous structure, 

 however, Laterite is but little fitted for fine sculpture. 



