102 KING: KADAPAH AND KARNÜL FORMATIONS. [PART I1, 
Neither the Nawab of Banaganpilly, nor his followers, nor the 
Tehsildar of the place, nor the merchants could, or would, tell me of any 
better diamonds having been found for many years. They said they 
knew of no valuable diamonds having been found. The coolies said the 
same, and it is apparently impossible to bribe them to fetch diamonds, 
supposing that they had secreted any good ones. 
The surface of the Banaganpil hill runs up for about half its 
distance at from 5° to 10° and then it stretches away westward as a 
plateau; but only the townward slope has been largely worked for 
diamonds, the plateau beyond up to the denuded portion of the hill 
having been only partly worked. Men are still working at the old 
shafts near the town, while they are lengthening the galleries towards 
the higher plateau; and old men may be still seen at places re-sifting 
the discarded gravel heaps in the hopes that a diamond or two * may 
have grown. I do not see any reason to suppose that diamonds may 
not eventually be found in the rest of the plateau, for the remainder 
of the quartzite eovering is just a continuation of that already being 
worked. Up till this time further mines have probably not been opened, 
as there has evidently been quite enough field for exploration near the 
town hitherto; while there certamly would be more trouble in working 
the distant ground, as the shafts would have to be sunk deeper and 
through very hard quartzites. 
From the Banaganpilly hill I tracked the diamond group westward 
until it dips under the Nerjee limestones of Ramwarum Conda at the 
north-east corner of the Oopalpád plateau; whence it may be seen 
cropping out all along the south side of the valley west of Banaganpilly, 
at the edge of the limestone terrace lying at the base of the northern 
and western slopes of the plateau. 
Some sixteen miles west-by-south of Banaganpilly this outcrop runs 
out for some miles beyond the edge of the overlying limestones, and is 
spread as a capping over the hills around the now much ruined town 
( تلا ۳ 
