SUB-RECENT MARINE BEDS. 57 



here also much obscured by considerable accumulations of teri sand and 

 along the coasts by the ordinary dunes. 



The limestone varies from a typical variety weathering to an almost 

 chalky surface to a slightly calcareous grit. The prevalent colours are 

 greyish-white and drab to light brown. The more gritty variety of the 

 limestone occurs at the south-western extremity of the eastern plateau, 

 where it forms a capping bed fully 4 feet thick. The most gritty parts 

 of the bed contain a large percentage of coarse quartz grit and sand. 

 The dip of this bed and of the beds in many parts of the western plateau 

 is northerly at very low angles, or else the beds are horizontal. Fossils 

 are not very easy to distinguish in the limestone, nor are they nu- 

 merous in an entire condition, although large quantities of comminuted 

 marine shells are common in some beds. I failed in finding a section 

 showing the relation of the limestone to the gneiss, but in one section 

 along the path leading direct south from Kudung Kulam there is a 

 small exposure of pale mottled grit which underlies the limestone. 

 Whether this grit, which is unfossiliferous locally, re-appears below the 

 limestone along the south side of the plateau, I was unable to ascertain, 

 owing to the amount of talus resting on the scarp overlooking the 

 strip of gneiss which here forms the coast, I estimated the thickness of 

 the limestone from 50 feet to 60 feet or more. Near the observatory and 

 in the village of Kudung Kulam I noticed some fine blocks of a dense 

 cream-coloured limestone of considerable beauty, but could not find out, 

 despite many enquiries, where this variety had been quarried. A rather 

 different and more shelly (comminuted shells) cream-coloured limestone 

 was crossed in following a path leading from Kudung Kulam to the 

 west of Idindan Karai (Iddinge Kurra) . 



The fossils collected were some few oysters and a number of large 

 and long Balani. These were found at the extreme western end of 

 the eastern plateau. The specimens collected at the north-eastern 

 corner of the western plateau about half way up the limestone slope, 

 were as follows :— 



Purpura persica. 

 Mazza rapa ? 

 Lithodomus, sp. 



( 57 ) 



