150 POOTE : SOUTH MAHUATTA COUNTRY. 



called " lithographic " limestone, a very fine grained, dense, waxy-lustred 

 variety, with decidedly conchoidal fracture. It occurs in flaggy beds, 

 the individual flags having a thickness of from 3 to 6 or 8 inches. 

 They are very easily quarried, and are used exclusively as the building 

 material of the neighbourhood,* besides being largely carried away to 

 considerable distances for better-class building of all kinds. In a few 

 places the beds are massive, from 3 to 3 feet thick, and do not separate 

 into flags. 



In color there is great variation, the general succession of color 



from top to bottom being bluish-grey, grey, drab or 

 Prevalent colors. 



cream-colored, pinkish, and purplish ; the latter 



variety resting usually on purple shaley sandstone. This scale of color 



does not, however, hold good everywhere, and in some localities the 



basement of the limestone series is of grey color. 



The total thickness of the limestone near Talikot may be estimated 



at about 80 feet. This estimate was made at 

 Thickness observed. 



the edge of the limestone area near Salwargi, six 



miles east-south-east of Talikot, where the almost universal covering of 



reo-ur is absent. Further to the north-east, however, at Gogi, Mr. King 



found younger beds of limestone, which had been left undenuded, 



and the greatest thickness of the limestone far exceeds the above 



estimate. 



The limestone all around its boundary as far east as Kembhavi (south- 

 west quarter sheet 57) dips inward generally at 

 Lie of beds. 



a low angle (a few exceptional cases will be men- 

 tioned further on), and within the area the beds most frequently roll 

 about in all directions, but always at low angles. The inclination very 

 rarely exceeds from &° to 5°. 



* The town of Talikot is chiefly built of the drab and cream -colored varieties, which 

 present an extremely handsome appearance and are locally most esteemed. 

 ( 150 ) 



