86 FOOTE : GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OE THE EASTERN COAST. 



In their geological age all these deposits belong to the recent period, 

 L teritic rocks of re- having been formed since man's advent upon earth, 

 cent age. as p r0 ved in many cases by their containing traces 



of man's handiwork, in the shape of chipped stone implements of 

 palaeolithic types. Wherever such implements were found, beds of 

 shingle and gravel were also found, or traces of their having once 

 existed there, or at no great distance. 



By far the greatest development of lateritic deposits and implementi-* 



ferous gravels occurs in the southern part of our 

 Divided into five areas. . . „ . 



area. (Jut or five principal areas or lateritic rock, 



four lie south of the Gundlakamma river; the fifth lies nearly 50 

 miles further northward, and forms an appendage as it were to the south- 

 eastern flank of the Kondavidu hill range. 



These principal lateritic areas may be conveniently called after the 

 chief places standing on or near to them, and beginning in the south, 

 we find : — 1, the Ramapatam (Ramiaputnum) area ; 2, the Kandukur 

 (Cundacoor) area ; 3, the Devagudur (Davagoodoor) area ; 4, the Ongole 

 area; and 5, the Kopparu area. Besides these larger areas there are 

 sundry small detached patches or outliers, and a considerable number of 

 fringes surrounding the older rocks, especially the various patches of the 

 Rajmahal rocks. The shapes of the larger areas as well as of the fringing 

 patches are so varied and complicated that it would be useless to waste 

 time in a hopeless attempt to describe what can only really be learnt by 

 inspection of the map. A brief description of the penological features 

 of the principal areas and patches mapped and unmapped must 

 suffice. 



1. The Ramapatam area lies between the sea at Ramapatam and 



the alluvial valley of the Man-eru and its lower 

 The Ramapatam area. 



tributaries. A little to the north-west of the 



town the laterite approaches within a mile of the sea. It forms a 



low undulating plateau largely covered with thorny scrub jungle. 



The lateritic formations are generally very ferruginous, whether they 



be sands, gravels, or conglomerates. The gravelly form covers by far 



( 86 ) 



