MIDNAPORE, OEISSA, &C. 267 



sufficient to give a red tint to the whole. In this case also kunkur, that 

 is calcareous kunkur or gootin, is frequently associated.* The two 

 extremes, of a sandy clay full of kunkur, and with nodules of laterite 

 few and sparse, and of a gravelly rock composed almost exclusively of 

 ferruginous nodules, similar to those which constitute the massive late- 

 rite, pass into each other, and it is impossible to draw any marked line 

 of separation. 

 That this sandy clay and gravel, often ferruginous, often calcareous, is 



More recent than La- ^ ^^^'^ ^■^'=™' ^^'^ ^ ™°"^^ ^^'i'^'^'j extended deposit 

 '^'''"^' than the true massive laterite, is undoubted. But 



neither the scale of the map at our disposal nor yet its accuracy was 

 such as to admit of a separation of them on it. In most cases therefore, 

 the older alluvial deposits (in all probability marine) of the country are 

 included in the area coloured as laterite. 

 , In the northern part of the district of Bancoorah, this laterite does not 



cover any great area, between the alluvial flats 

 Extent of laterite . 



along the river Damuda on the one hand, and the 



gneiss on the other. It is seen near Barjorah and Shaharjora; south- 

 wards near Kharary, resting on gneiss ; and in thin patches of no great 

 extent, nearer to the town of Bancoorah. In the higher and more broken 

 grounds extending to Sonamooky, and the Dalkissur, it is seen covering 

 the greater part of the swelling coppice-covered ridges, for the most part 

 gravelly iii its character, but here and there forming thick, solid and 

 massive beds. (Bursinghee; Chooa-mussena; Radhanuggur; Puttra- 

 mara ; Kurwan ; Ramband, &c.) Toward the west, it becomes thinner 

 and less marked, and gradually more mixed up with the debris of the 

 gneiss. 



* The nodular ferruginous rock, which most geologists would call laterite, is generally 

 known to the people of this district as hunhur, or iron-kunkur, while the calcareous con- 

 cretions, which are so common, and so universally used as the source of lime, and which a 

 geologist would call lamkur, arc universally known as gootin. 



