ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 59 



mineral resources is concerned. At the same time, the sandstones of 

 Peddavegi, Tundkalpiidi, and Janampet (north-north-west of Ellore) are 

 worthy of special notice. That of the first locality is a tolerably com- 

 pact even-grained rock, in good thick beds, easily worked, and, like 

 most red sandstones in India, given to hardening considerably on exposure, 

 though in the latter process of change its usual brilliant red colour is 

 given to fade or turn brown, and thus the stone is not so well adapted 

 for external ornamentation. The finer and more brilliantly vermilion 

 red variety is one of the handsomest stones I have seen in India, and 

 it would be well worth carrying great distances, as by the canal which 

 is close by, for interiors. The more useful stone is, however, the buff 

 granular felspathic rock of the Tundkalpiidi scarp, which appears to 

 be of perfect durability : it certainly exceeds in this respect any gneiss 

 of this part of the district. The old pillars of many small temples in 

 the neighbourhood have become, in a sort of a way, porcelanized on 

 their surfaces, the matrix or hard clayey medium enclosing the quartz 

 granules having become glazed over, while the latter stand out a little 

 over the surface giving a rough but still rounded somewhat saccaharoid 

 surface to the stone. The old unused blocks lying about near the quarries 

 at Janampet are weathered and hardened in the same way, and they 

 are said to have lain there from time immemorial, the pagoda for which 

 they were intended never having been completed. 



Such are the specialities among the sandstones ; but good stone is 

 to be obtained in many other places all over the sandstone area. Thus 

 near Peddapriram in the Samalkot area, there is very good buildino- 

 material in what appears to be the same band of beds in the Rajah- 

 mundry sandstones which has been nearly worked out at Dowlaishweram. 



Diamond workings. — A far greater interest attaches itself, however, 

 to the sandstones of one particular part of the district, namely, those 

 near Muleli (to the west of Ellore), which are reported to have yielded 

 diamonds. There is no doubt that these sandstones of the low plateau 

 above the village have been broken up and searched for diamonds, as 

 have also the recent deposits in the valley below ; but they are not 



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