54 king: nellore portion of the carnatic. 



eeous bands occasionally appear, but the mass of the gneiss is much less 

 schistose and more massive, and has much more the character of typical 

 gneiss than the rocks further east, and it is almost entirely without the 

 numerous bands of quartz -rock which form so marked a feature through- 

 out the remainder of this north-east quarter of the sheet. The northern 

 portion of this band is even more massive and granitoid, and from west 

 of Beejumpulla to near the north edge of the sheet there are from 3 

 to 4 miles in breadth of a very massive granitoid gneiss, forming hills 

 of considerable size, the lamination or bedding of which is frequently 

 very indistinct, and indeed, except in the mass, or where considerable 

 surfaces are exposed, often not recognisable at all. It is not, however, 

 very largely or markedly crystalline. It is almost entirely devoid of 

 schistose beds. Only in one or two places did I notice some micaceous 

 schistose bands in it. 



" In several other places, indeed almost everywhere throughout this 

 area, occasional, but generally very narrow bands of more typical gneiss, 

 alternate with the hornblendic and micaceous schists and quartz-rock 

 which form the main portion of the rocks, but none of them are of suffi- 

 cient importance to require special notice. 



" The remainder of this portion of the sheet (north-east quarter) is made 

 up of a series of alternating bands of hornblendic, mica, and talcose schists, 

 and quartz-rock. The bands of the last-mentioned, as above observed, 

 form a very marked feature throughout this part of the country. A large 

 proportion of the small ridges and hills which vary the otherwise rather 

 monotonous level ground consist either principally or exclusively of this 

 rock, which is a highly crystalline quartz-rock, commonly grey or whitish 

 in colour, but often weathering somewhat brown or reddish. It bears 

 a very close resemblance to many of the very hard and crystalline quart - 

 zites of the Cuddapah series, perhaps more specially to some of the bands 

 capping the hills along the Eastern Ghats, e.g., in the Budvail Taluq 

 It may, however, be generally distinguished from these by some char- 

 acteristic peculiarities. The presence of minute scales of mica can 

 generally be detected, although they readily escape notice, and are com- 

 monly clearly seen only on the surfaces of the laminae or thinner beds. 

 ( 16^ ) 



