46 FOOTE : GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE EASTERN COAST. 



The first outlier to be noticed is that capping the Bairawudi Konda ., 



,. _ , in the extreme southwest corner of our gneiss 



Bairawudi Konda out- ° 



lier. area, where it forms a very conspicuous object, as it 



rises into a considerable mountain, surrounded in most places by a 

 cliffy scarp. The outlier forms a small synclinal basin, out of the 

 middle of which rises a great mass of coarse micaceous and chloritic 

 schists, capped by a higher set of quartzites, forming the highest 

 summit. 



The lower quartzites rest with great unconformity on the upturned 

 edges of a great series of mica schist beds. They are doubtless a northern 

 extension of the great beds capping the Udayaghiri, a few miles to 

 the south ; but there has been an appreciable thinning out of the 

 quartzites between the two mountains, and the cliffs of the northern 

 mountain are much inferior in height and beauty to those which rendered 

 Udayaghiri such a famous stronghold in former ages. 



The relations of the Bairawudi Konda beds to those exposed in the 

 main mass of the Vellakonda range have been illustrated in a section 

 given in Mr. King's memoir (I. <?., page 2*22). The lower quartzites of 

 the outlier correspond to the Cheyair group of the series into which Mr. 

 King divided the Kadapa formation of that region. 1 



The lower quartzites occur in thick beds of whitish or buffy colour. 

 At the northern end of the mountain they are much contorted^ 

 and the synclinal fold they form is beautifully shown in a fine 

 vertical cliff more than 100 feet high, at the southern end of a 

 deep and very picturesque ravine opening northward towards the 

 village of Kothapalle. During the rainy season a small stream falls 

 over this cliff 2 , above which comes a considerable thickness of chloritic 



1 Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. VIII, p. 126. 



2 Several small rock temples, probably of Buddhist origin, have been cut in the mica- 

 scbist on the slope of the spur on the western side of the ravine, and a few small niches on 

 the face of the quartzite cliff ; they are now sacred to Konabairuru deva, the deity of the 

 waterfall. 



( 46 ) 



