SOILS AND SUB- AERIAL DEPOSITS. 10 1 



Masulipatam attain in parts a height of from 30 to nearly 50 feet, and 

 where overgrown with pandanus bushes, cashew-nut trees, and other sand- 

 loving plants, give rise to picturesque peeps one would hardly expect 

 among sand dunes. A belt of Palmyra palms (Borassus flabelliformis) 

 accompanies the coast sands with hardly a break. The moving of the sands 

 can easily be checked by planting casuarinas, or the trees named above. 



Small sand-hills are often to be seen at the bends of the different 



smaller rivers, where long reaches of sand, dry 

 River- side dunes. . 



during the greater part ot the year, are exposed 



to the strong land winds. Several of the larger are shown on the map, 

 but many were seen too small to be mapped. Some of these river-side 

 dunes are troublesome, as the sand advances from them over the fields 

 and covers them injuriously. No attempts appear to be made to plant 

 these small dunes to fix the sand. The self-sown Ipomea (bindweed) and 

 wild grass are practically insufficient to stay the advance. 



The inland dunes are a feature which is rarely seen in other parts 

 Inland dunes of red °^ the country. Those to be seen in this region 

 sandl are found in the upper part of the Pal-eru valley, 



east and south-east of Nandananam (Nundanawonum) . That they 

 are not river-side dunes is clear from their positions, and from the fact 

 that the sand in the river beds is drab or greyish, while the sand hills 

 are bright red, almost scarlet when seen at a little distance in strong 

 sunlight. The best-defined and most striking is that of Narrava 

 Gopalpur, at the northern extremity of the Kodni Konda ridge. 



This sandhill is 4| miles long, and generally about a quarter of a 

 Narrava Gopalpur sand- m ^ e wide. The sand contains a proportion of 

 hiiis ' clay sufficient in parts to make the whole bind 



into a tolerably compact mass, — not so compact, though, but that it 

 crumbles down under one's feet. Another well-defined red dune occurs 

 at Kondareddipalle (Condareddypully), about 5 miles to the north-east. 

 Several other accumulations, of equally red colour, occur to the west of 

 Hanumantapad and near Chinna Gollapalle, and others also to the west 

 of the Kodni Konda, near Nandananam, Ramapalle, and Pondhova. To 



( 101 ) 



