SUB-EECENT MARINE BEDS. 63 



demand for troughs, pillars, &c., &c., cut out of the more purely 

 calcareous parts. The beds show strong- signs of having been accumu- 

 lated in the presence of considerable currents, there being much false 

 bedding in the gritty parts of the rock and also considerable drifting 

 together of comminuted shells. Most of the shell fragments are too small 

 to be recognised with any certainty. The most conspicuous fossil is a 

 large and long Balanus, which must have been extremely common as its 

 fragments make up a large part of the shelly masses. It appears to be 

 identical with that occurring so commonly at Kudung Kulam. The 

 bedding is nearly horizontal where normal. The dip, if any exists, is 

 at an extremely low angle south or southward. The general colour of 

 the limestone is creamy, darkening to a warm pale brown. Besides the 

 Balanus just mentioned, entire specimens of which show numerously 

 here and there, only a few oysters and a single specimen of a pectinoid 

 shell were observed, but owing to the great toughness of the rock it 

 is almost impossible to extract any of the fossils in entire condition. It 

 was from this quarry that Bishop Caldwell got the stone of which he 

 built the noble gothic church at Idayangudi. 



Mottled yellowish-white sandstones show in well-sections some] little 

 distance to the northward, along the path leading to Suviseshapuram 

 Mission Station. 



In the map accompanying his paper on the geology of south-east 

 Outcrop in Satan Tinnevelly, Bishop (then Dr.) Caldwell shows a 

 Kulam ten. small patch of the marine beds as exposed near the 



centre of the great Satan Kulam teri. I have no doubt as to the perfect 

 correctness of this observation, but was unable to find the patch in ques- 

 tion which has most probably been covered up by the advance eastward 

 of the sands which is considerable in the high parts of the teri. It is 

 very probable that some future observer will find this patch of the 

 marine beds re-exposed by the onward march of the blown sands. 



Two or three miles east of the teri and about a mile north of the 



Outcrop north of Taruvai lake I came across an exposure of estua- 



Taruvai lake. ^.-^^^ ^^^^ f ^^^ ^f gubfossil shells laid bare by the 



( 63 ) 



