KALADGI SERIES. 103 



Nargund hill, a very conspicuous object for miles around, rises 



abruptly from the " black plain/' The lower part 

 Nargund hill OHtlier. ... 



consists of schistose varieties of gneissic rocks 



which are capped by several hundred feet of typical quartzites, form- 

 ing a narrow plateau with a very fine series of precipitous scarps all 

 round. The plateau is about a mile long by a furlong wide, and beino- 

 elaborately fortified, was in former times one of the finest and most im- 

 portant strongholds in those regions."^ 



The contact of the basement bed and underlying gneissic schist 

 may be seen on the path leading up to the fort. At that particular spot 

 the schist is a grey to purple gritty micaceous schist, dipping 50° to 70° 

 east-by-north. On the schist is a bed of brecciated quartzite conglome- 

 rate from 1| to 4 feet thick, overlaid by bluish " waxy ■'■' quartzite, and 

 this again by buffy and pale salmon-red beds. On the summit the beds 

 dip from both ends towards the centre with a slight southerly inclination 

 at angles of from 5° to 10°. The western end is rather the higher, and 

 cannot be much less than 1,000 feet above the plain. 



The base of the long quartzite ridge stretching from Biddugal, 



Boundary between Bid- where the Malprabha leaves the Kaladgi basin, to 



duaral and Telluskode. mnij i, -i. • j ,■■•.. 



^ lelluskode, where it agam enters the basm, is 



nowhere exposed ; the thick cotton soil deposit of the '' black plain " 



extends close up to the hills and is itself covered by the sandy talus 



resulting from the decomposition of the quartzites.f 



* Nargund fort resisted the efforts of Tippoo Sultan's army for a long time in 1785, and 

 finally surrendered only on favorable terms being offered, but not observed, by the treacherous 

 conqueror. The Brahmin Eajah of Nargund broke into rebellion in 1858, relying on the 

 strength of his castle, and murdered Mr. Manson, the Assistant Political Agent, but havino- 

 forgotten to provide a proper supply of powder, made no defence of the fort. He fled, but 

 was overtaken, and eventually hanged at Belgaum. The fort was dismantled and in part 

 blown up. 



t The " dirty" breccia show at various points, e. g., a little to east-south-east of So- 

 munkop, east of the high road running from the left bank of the Malprabha at Goankop, 

 northward to Bijapur and Sholapm-. Again, fui-ther east near Lakmapur and Mullapur, 

 and very strikingly at Telluskode, the ford over the Malprabha on the road from Badami to 

 Gadag (Gudduck). 



( 103 ) 



