CHAPTER XII. 



ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



The mineral wealth of the South Mahratta country and adjacent 

 districts is^ practically speaking, of very small importance, for the 

 different geological formations they contain possess nothing available 

 in any quantity except building-stones and iron ore. For the former 

 of these there is nothing but a local demand, and for the latter even 

 the local demand is diminishing rapidly owing to the great increase 

 in the cost of charcoal for fuel. A brief enumeration of the most 

 important cases, ancient and modern, in which stone has been used 

 architecturally, with notice of new localities whence remarkable and 

 valuable kinds may be obtained, will now be given, taking the several 

 formations in their geological sequence. ' 



To begin with the gneissic rocks : but few varieties of these are 

 Building-stones of utilised, the granitoid variety excepted. This 



^;neissic ag . j^^^ been employed in constructing the most im- 



portant of the old fortresses in our region, e. g., Raichur Yadgir, 

 Shapur, the two Beydar strongholds of Sorapur and Wakinkera 

 (Wagungerri of Sheet 57), and lastly Mudgal. In many of these the 

 walls are in part cyclopeau in structure ; a splendid example may be 

 seen at the eastern gate of E-aichur town, where some of the grey 

 granite blocks fitted together without cement, truly deserve to be 

 described as megaliths. Granite gneiss has been largely employed 

 in different structures belonging to the Madras Railway, and notably 

 in some of the piers of the great bridge crossing the Tungabhadra 

 at Kasapur (Kaehapore). 



A very beautiful variety of rather fine-grained pale grey granite 

 gneiss forms the low hill on the east side of which stands the large 

 village of Gobur fourteen miles from Raichur. For durability this variety 



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