66 FOOTE : SOUTH MAHRATTA COUNTRY. 



Mr. King also mentions the occurrence of coarsely crystallized 

 quartzo-f elspathic granite in granitoid gneiss at Turkandona"^: " half a mile 

 north of the village there is a good spread of the same granite showing 

 the white felspar crystallized, so that it gives quite a brilliant pearly- 

 glassy lustre to the rock in a cross light. There is a little brown mica 

 in this granite.'^ 



The granitoid gneiss is in many places much cut up by small granitic 

 veins, which frequently cross each other variously, and often give rise to 

 very strange and grotesque shapes in weathered blocks. These are 

 frequently collected by the natives and stuck up in fields or under trees, 

 to do duty as idols, especially in place of the " ling " or phallic emblem. 

 Some are even promoted to do duty in front of the village temples. 

 One such I sketched in the village of Arehshankar in front of the prin- 

 cipal shrine, where it served as a figure of Nandi, Shiva's sacred bull. 

 I examined it very carefully, and could not find the slighest indication of 

 human workmanship on it. The side view only presented the likeness 

 to the recumbent bull ; seen from before or behind, the stone looked 

 merely like a rude slab with its upper edges much rounded by weather- 

 ing. The strange shape is mainly due to the position and greater 

 durability of the three small granite veins included in the mass, two of 

 which made the head, and face, and the third the flat base on which it 

 stands. 



The most important intrusive mass occurring in the Konkan gneiss 

 area is that forming the high and conspicuous Waraora hills (Wagheree 

 station of map), five miles east-by-north of Vingorla. Mr. Wilkinson 

 describes the main mass of these hills as composed of porphyritic syenite 

 and hornblende rock. " The Waraora hills are more than twice the 

 heio"ht of the laterite ones, and they present a striking contrast to these, 

 beino* irregular in shape, conical, and thickly wooded, whilst the laterite 

 hills are nearly flat- topped and almost devoid of vegetation.''' 



* About 3 miles to the north-north-east of the great railway bridge over the Tun- 

 gabhadra at Kachapur. 

 ( QQ ) 



