Chap. VI.] surEUFiciAL deposits and soils. 127 



Tainandamullay from the Karapaudymullay. They stretch across the 



valley from side to side a little to the west of the villag-e of Combaly. 



(Cuppaly of maj).) 



The thickness of the red soil which towards the bottom shows some 



few imperfect layers of rounded and partially 

 xliickncss of soil. 



rounded pebbles^ is very considerable^ a depth of not 



less than 40 or 50 feet being exposed in some of the stream sections. 



These red-soil mounds are generally overgrown with the ordinary 

 forest trees of the neighbourhood^ which with the grass likewise growing 

 on them, greatly diminish the erosive action of the rains. As soon as 

 roads are cut through the forest, or the protecting agencies otherwise 

 removed, the waste of these mounds under heavy rains is shown, by the 

 deep scorings they bear, to be exceedingly great. Other fine examples 

 of such accumulations of red soil may be seen in the great valley run- 

 ning into the Tainandamullay range from the south and dividing it 

 into two parts. In this valley near the village of Perryagoody 

 Muddavoor such mounds occur on both sides of the river (the Vellaur) 

 in such form as to prove conclusively that the deposit was at some past 

 time much more extensive than at present. 



At the mouth of the great ravine opening on the north side of the 

 Tainandamullay at Taultooky, (a village 4 miles south-west of Combaly,) 

 a very great accumulation of red soil has taken place, and appears to 

 rest in part on an immense bed of boulders and other blocks, which 

 show very strikingly the immense grinding and crushing force at play 

 when the ravine torrent is in freshet. The red soil is accumulated here 

 almost to as great a thickness as at Combaly. A much smaller example 

 of these red soil accumulations occurs in the valley east of the great 

 north spur of the Sm'ragoomullay, south-east of Salem. The accumula- 

 tion of soil has taken place chiefly in a narrow part of the valley, which 

 is bounded on the west side by the great spur above referred to, and on 

 the east by a smaller series of hills not indicated on the maps. The 



( 349 ) 



