48 FOOTE : SOUTH MAHRATTA COUNTRY. 



argillaceous, so that ttey are really hornblendic clay schists rather than 

 hornblende schists. 



In o-eneral features these schistose areas differ from the granitoid 

 -n J! •L.■^^ ■ 1,- areas by the much greater smoothness of their sur- 



Form of hills in schis- J ° 



toss areas, face, for even when they form hills they are in 



most cases gently rounded in form, and rarely shew very rocky surfaces. 



The slopes of the watersheds are, however, greatly cut up and worn into 



very numerous small rounded hillocks. Few conspicuous hills exist in 



these schistose districts, and the scenery is very rarely anything but 



commonplace and monotonous. This is in great measure owing to the 



very scanty vegetation by which the schistose rocks are covered. This 



paucity of vegetation is particularly noticeable in the hilly tracts north 



of Maski (Moosky) and Kautdla (Civital). The more slatey the schist, 



the more barren the hill sides. It is only when a thick bed of cotton 



soil covers the schists that the country is fertile. In some few places, 



however, the schists weather into a bright red soil, which is very fairly 



productive. 



The second most important development of hornblendic schist 

 occurs in the south-eastern part of the Hunugund schistose band, espe- 

 cially near Bhogapur Ulugundi (Bhogapoor Oolugoondi) to the north- 

 east-by-east of Tawurugiri, where it forms a considerable hill very con- 

 spicuous by the intense blackness of its bare and rocky sides. 



Micaceous schists are but little developed in the eastern and central 



portions of our gneissic area. In the western, on 

 Micaceous schists. 



the contrary, they are largely developed, and form 

 the principal mass of the older rocks on which the southern extension of 

 the Deccan trap rests in the Western Ghats. The micaceous schists are 

 here seen in vast thickness, and superbly exposed in the grandly beau- 

 tiful ravines of the Mahadayi (Madwee) and Tillar rivers, also in the 

 scarps south of the Parwar and Ram Ghats. The micaceous beds are 

 soft, and weather away more readily than the overlying basaltic flows ; 

 ( 48 ) 



