106 FOOTE : GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE EASTERN COAST. 



miles east of the south end of the Podile mountain. The rock is a 

 grey or pinkish-grey homogeneously bedded form of granite gneiss, the 

 felspathic ingredient predominating a little over the quartz, and both 

 very much over the mica. 



The masses to be converted into wheels are broken out with wedges 

 in rude squares, which are first dressed into octagons or hexagons, these 

 are then raised and set on end, and kept up while worked till complete. 

 The wheels are generally perfect discs, in the plane of bedding, all but the 

 box, which is kept nearly three times as thick as the peripheral parts. 

 In a few cases I have elsewhere seen lensiform wheels. The hole for 

 the axle is drilled from both sides, till a thin diaphragm only remains, 

 which is then carefully broken out. Occasionally the sides of the wheels 

 are ornamented with elegant scroll patterns. 



The cost of the wheels increases very largely in proportion to their 

 size, which is measured in spans and finger-breadths from the centre to 

 the circumference. A pair of wheels of three spans and four finger- 

 breadths semi-diameter will cost 8 rupees, a pair of four spans semi- 

 diameter 10 rupees, and a pair of five spans semi-diameter not less than 

 20, owing to the increased difficulty of getting the large-sized blocks. A 

 large pair of wheels is two months' work for one stone-cutter. These 

 wheels are said to be very durable, unless exposed to sudden collision 

 with rocks, and their durability is said to improve with time : a pair of 

 large wheels equal to a burden of one candy in the first year, will bear 

 two candies in the second. 



The Kuchupudi quarries occupy 30 stone-cutters, and turn out about 

 100 pair of wheels in the year, and neighbouring villages supply a smaller 

 number, in addition to gneiss troughs, curry-stones, &c. 



The stone-wheel industry exists also, according to the Kuchupudi 

 people, at Dekerekonda near Darisi, where a similar but rather paler granite 

 gneiss is worked. I had no opportunity of examining this latter quarry. 



But little use is or has been made, except as rough building-stone, of 

 the many very handsome varieties of granite gneiss that might be quarried 

 at very many places in the granitoid areas, Kondavidu especially. The 

 ( 106 ) 



