232 NILGHIRI HILLS. 



gherries as a group, and the incompatibility of such a series as synchro- 

 nous with either of the two systems above enumerated,* induce the belief 

 that it belongs to a separate and subsequent sysLem of dislocations. f 

 According to the above, the following is the series of successive 



Succession of distur- disturbances which have mainly given rise to 

 bances as deduced from 

 the preceding. the present physical aspect of the country. 



The first great disturbance which took place was the upheaval of 



the Ghats, and the intervening plateau of Mysore, 

 Upheaval of the Ghats. 



the two main lines of dislocation meeting and 



possibly terminating in the Neelgherries. The great fault, or system 

 of faults, along which the Neelgherry or Avalanche escarpment of the 

 Kundahs was afterwards upraised, probably gave rise to the terminal 

 portion of the Western Ghats, the down throw at that period being 

 towards the South. Many smaller dislocations more or less parallel 

 to the two main lines would be produced during such an upheaval, 

 and in some of these the isolated hill mass of the Neelgherries may 

 have been subsequently upraised to a far greater elevation. 

 The second great disturbance which produced the Neelgherries may 

 Formation of the Neel- ^^^® foUowed the former, either after a certain 

 gherries. interval, or as the closing act of a long period 



of elevation, the upheaving force being more concentrated. The area 

 upheaved was bounded partly by pre-existing lines of fracture, and 

 partly by a newly formed series, having an Eastern and Western direc- 

 tion. During the same period, minor disturbances broke up the 

 country for some miles to the South, and also produced some of those 

 escarpments which have been described as occurring on the Neelgherries, 



* Hopkins, GeoL Trans. Vol. VII., part 1. 



t Mr. Adolphe Schlagintweit, in his paper previously referred to, states his conviction 

 of the existence of a line of dislocation along the course of the Moyaar river, which flows 

 in a deep gorge through the Mysore country, a few miles to the North of the Neelgherries. 

 This part of the country has not yet been examined by the Survey, but if, as is extremely 

 probable, Mr. Sclilagiutweit's supposition be correct, such a line of fracture would belong 

 to this third system. 



