8 KING : NELLORE PORTION OF THE CARNATIC. 



upland j and these are well marked in the present area by the wide belt 

 of plains and the western barrier of the Veligonda mountains, which are 

 6t the same time geologically distinct, the former being of gneiss, covered 

 up in a scattered way (more perfectly towards the coast; by later forma- 

 tions, while the western hill wall is of the hardest rocks of the Transition 

 or Cuddapah series. The plains are, however, much diversified by low 

 hills and ridges in their middle portion, and by outliers of the mountain 

 wall and other lower ranges lying to the south-east, they themselves hav- 

 ing at the same time an easy slope up to the base, or rather up to a great 

 talus of debris collected at the base of the western hills. The low 

 country proper seldom rises more than 150 feet above the sea, but the 

 talus which is often moie than 4 miles in width, sometimes attains a 

 height of 250 feet. The Veligondas have an average height of about 

 2 000 feet, the peaks of Penchalakonda and Nagwaram being at least 

 over 2,500 feet. The immediate outlier of Udayagiri is said to be 3,030 

 feet high, and the larger one of Kambak Droog, on the southern edge 

 of the field, is about 1,800 feet. The Veligondas present a generally 

 steep face to the sea, but this is very much scored by deep valleys and 

 ravines, and is even cut right through by the Penner river at the Somisilla 

 o-oro-e. There are some very fine cliffy headlands, especially to the 

 north of this gorge, and the southern outlying Kambak Droog and the 

 smaller Kalahasti range are even more precipitous. To the north of the 

 Penner the Durgama Konda outlier differs from the rest in having a long 

 sloping back to the seaward, while its much steeper face is to the 

 westward; and Udayagiri Droog is a conspicuous plateau with lofty and 

 nearly perpendicular edges. 



The carving out of the great plain and step of mountain wall was 

 evidently in the greatest measure the work of 

 marine denudation, though subsequent atmospheric 

 and river degradation, following on possibly more than one elevation 

 above the sea, and later levellings up by the deposition of newer forma- 

 tions, have almost entirely obliterated all trace of this. The marked 

 distinction between plain and wall is at the same time in part due to the 

 ( H6 ) 



