158 On the Granite J or mat ion 



Paulcode, and the long range of hills between Cavery, Poo- 

 ram, and Colligal in Coimbatore. In general, hills of this 

 kind present long slopes covered with grass, and apparently 

 smooth, and have a reddish appearance, while granite hills 

 of piled blocks and crags, are generally covered with 

 large trees and green bushes, which find root between the 

 stones. 



In the Barramahal, a common form of granite hills, that 

 of a conical heap of round blocks, with a solid craggy mass 

 of granite projecting from the summit, and sometimes also 

 the Mamillar masses, may be also seen surrounded with 

 round blocks, as if they rolled down from its summit. 



Ranges of granite hills, with table lands on the summit, 

 are very common in the Salem and Barramahal districts ; 

 the slopes of these ranges differ not at all in appearance 

 from the conical ridges, shewing sometimes all the varieties 

 of appearance above described : but the most common is 

 that of a regular slope of large blocks. This runs up 

 generally at an angle of 45* until it meets the almost level 

 plain which crowns the summit of the range. The descrip- 

 tion of these table lands will form the subject of a separate 

 paper, and need not therefore detain us now. I have before 

 alluded to the occurrence of soil on the summits of the 

 Mamillar masses of granite in Mysore. In this district 

 every one of the Mamillar granite hills is crowned with soil 

 of a reddish colour, filled with angular portions of felspar 

 and quartz, and some other minerals, in which large trees, 

 sometimes of very considerable size, are growing. It is 

 easy to see that mixed with this soil, and sometimes forming 

 a layer upon its surface, is a quantity of mould produced by 

 the decomposition of vegetable matter ; but this is easily to be 

 distinguished from the mineral soil. That granite, an al- 

 most purely silicious rock, can be decomposed into a ferru- 

 ginous arenaceous soil, is an absurdity too gratuitous to re- 

 quire discussion, particularly as the granite does in no case 



