190 VOOTE l SOUTH MAHRATTA COUNTRY. 



crystals occurred as lining to irregular clefts in the rocks, not in regular 

 drusy cavities. 



Agates are not commonly met with of large size. They are most 

 frequently found in the highly decomposed basaltic 



A. 0*^^63 



beds which are so often to be seen throughout 

 the trap area. As a rule, with but very rare exception, the agates are 

 made up of white or bluish- white chalcedony in concentric bands with 

 generally a central cavity lined with quartz crystals of different sizes. 

 Not a single agate showing bright colors of any kind was seen, and only 

 three geodes were found in which the central cavity was lined with 

 amethystine quartz of pale color. These were met with in one of the 

 very lowest flows close to the bottom of the old ghat road at Phonda 

 Ghat. Numerous geodes full of very compressed crystals of limpid quartz 

 accompanied the amethystine geodes. The geodes here found were much 

 larger than any seen elsewhere ; specimens ranging up to a child's head in 

 size, but generally much smaller, were here met with, all imbedded in an 

 earthy brownish basalt flow. 



Smaller agates are found in large numbers on the weathered surfaces 

 at the following places : On the ridge north of Chinchni, three miles 

 west o£ Chikori ; at Kurgaon, eight miles south-east-by-south of Chikori 5 

 at Koluti (Kolootie) on the banks of the Krishna, eight miles west of 

 Jamkhandi ; near the ruined village of Hamamsagur, twenty miles east- 

 south-east of Gokak ; north of Karikol (Kareekol), a village till lately 

 belonging to the Kolhapur Jaghir of Torgal ; and lastly, at Hanamapur, 

 five miles south-east of Batkurki in Badami Taluq. 



Some very curious fungoid concretions of chalcedony and rock 



crystal combined are found in a soft clayey 



° ' (weathered ?) amygdaloid flow south-east of Deh- 



mano-i, four miles south-south-east of the fort at Belgaum. This and the 



Kalanandigarh were the only localities at which 



Near Bc4gaum. , • , 1 . , , xa 1 ^ 



they were met with in the Deccan, but some concre- 

 . ( 190 ) 



