OTHER FORMATIONS. 71 



as being of Rajraahal sandstones ; but, as will be seen in this extract, 

 and again in those already given on the Rajmahal patches, Oldham is, 

 I think, decided in his opinion that the grits and conglomerates forming 

 it are of the Cuddalore sandstones. 



(3) . — Lateritic Deposits. 



The upper surface of the Cuddalore sandstone plateaus is often 



covered by a thin skin of ferruginous or lateritic 

 Sub-aerial. . ...... 



breccias and conglomerates, which is evidently a 



much newer deposit than the laterite of the sandstone group, and which 

 is also as clearly the result of rain- wash and other subaerial influences. 

 It is properly a ferruginously -cemented debris, and is sometimes obviously 

 the weathered or altered surface of the country-rock, whether this be 

 gneiss or recent sandstones. Not only is it formed or spread out over 

 the surface of the Nellore plateaus, but it is found in scattered patches 

 all over the country, particularly at the. base of the Kalahasti ranges 

 and in the plains lying below the southern portion of the Veligondas. 

 Several small patches were also noticed by Oldham in the country north 

 of the Penner, some of which are shown in the map. These outlying 

 patches are found to merge by thin seams of gravel and pisolitic rubble 

 into the heavy recent clayey gravels so frequent all over the Carnatic and 

 in the Cuddapah basin, which I would call the implement-bearing gravels 

 from our having discovered in them the palaeolithic quartzite implements 

 so well known in the Madras Presidency. The discovery of these imple- 

 ments was made just after I had left this Nellore country and taken up 

 the northern edge of the Madras sheet, so that we have had no further 

 opportunity of ascertaining their occurrence in the country under descrip- 

 tion ; but from the fact of our having found them nearly everywhere 

 else on this coast in these lateritic deposits and in the gravels, it is highly 

 probable that they do occur in the present area. Some years later 

 Mr. Foote found several implements of this type along the northern 

 edge of this area, the occurrence of which he records in the Kistna 

 memoir. 



( 179 ) 



