2 PRELIMINARY NOTICE ON THE 



" limestone nodules, which are found very generally dispersed" (p. 1 67.) 



Again, speaking of this flat tract, the author states that it is, in general, 



highly cultivated : — " South of the Mahanuddi, it may be generally 



" characterised as light and sandy ; beyond that river, and especially in 



" the neighbourhood of the hills, it acquires a clayey consistency and 



" appearance, and is often remarkably white, and often too, for miles 



" together, it has the surface strewed with a thin sprinkling of gravel or 



" limestone concretions, called by the natives Gengti This description 



" of soil extends nearly to Midnapore" (p. 171.) 



The hilly tract next comes under review. The distance between its 



boundary and the sea is stated to be nowhere 

 Character of hills. 



more than 60 to 70 miles. " At Balasore a group 



'" of fine rocky hills project boldly forth to within 16 to 18 miles of 



, " the shores of the bay, which were known to old navigators as the 



" Nelligreen (Nilgiri) Mountains, and between Ganjam and the Lake, 



" a low ridge appears actually to run out into the sea, though in 



"reality separated from the water by a wide sandy beach" (p. 176.) 



Again : — " The hills visible from the low country, between the Brahmini 



" and Ganjam, are chiefly a granitic formation, 

 Eocks. 



" remarkable for its resemblance to sandstone and 



" for its containing vast quantities of imperfectly formed garnets 



" disseminated throughout with veins of steatite considerably indurated. 



" They occur generally in irregularly scattered groups, having peaked 



" and waving summits, which seem to cross each other at all angles, 



" or in isolated conical and wedge-shaped hills, wholly disconnected 



" at their bases, and are all covered with vegetation to the very top. 



" The greatest height of those seen from the Mogulbundi may be about 



" 2,000 feet. Their ordinary elevation varies from 300 feet to 1,200 



" feet. Ridges occur further in the interior of greater loftiness and 



" regularity, but I believe that an extended continuous chain of moun- 



" tains is nowhere to be met with in the Rajwara of Orissa. The pre- 



