246 • FOOTE: SOUTH MAHEATTA COUNTRY. 



north-west of Sorapur and just within the Nizam's territory 

 (Sheet 57, S.W. quarter) near the western side of the valley. These 

 accumulations have been largely formed by the unequal degree of weather- 

 ing of the shales and overlying limestones^ by which the surface of the 

 valley for a mile or two from the present edges of the limestone plateaux 

 is covered with an immense talus of limestone fragments of all sizes 

 mixed with a smaller number of trap fragments. 



These are in many places cemented together into breccias or conglo- 

 merates of enormous coarseness by the deposition of carbonate of lime 

 in large quantity. The sandy material of the underlying shale beds 

 has been for the most part swept away previous to the deposition of the 

 calcareous cement. Of the included rocks many are angular (I think 

 the greater number), and the remainder rounded, more probably by 

 atmospheric action than by any aqueous attrition. 



The trap blocks are mostly rounded owing to the great extent to 

 which concentric weathering has gone on even in the most undis- 

 turbed trap-flows. I could not see any signs of subaqueous deposition 

 in these conglomerate beds, which I believe to be of purely sub- 

 aerial origin. The accompanying sketch illustrates the formation 

 of these conglomerates and breccias by simple subaerial action. 



Formation of a talus breccia. 

 a. Basement grits, Bhima series; b. Shaley sandstones ; c. Limestones. 

 X. Granite gneiss ; T. Deccan trap ; B. Talus breccia. 



The calcareous cement does not occur everywhere throughout this re- 

 markable limestone and trap talus ; in some sections the talus is seen 

 ( 246 ) 



