1842.] Tract between Bellary and Bijapore. 935 



a dyke of basaltic greenstone cuts the gneiss, running nearly due East 

 and West, and slightly distorting the laminae of the latter rock. Several 

 ramifications are thrown off, one of which has a South-westerly direc- 

 tion. The trap here may be remarked splitting into prismatic fragments 

 with smooth planes. The natives take advantage of this circumstance, 

 and employ the stones thus ready formed in building. 



In the bed of the river lie nodules of a reddish brown and white cor- 

 nelian, chert, iasper, calcedony, cacholong, se- 

 Bed of the Kistnah. > J V > J" 6' 



mi-opal with linear curved and angular delinea- 

 tions, and mocha stones. The pellucid pebbles are sometimes surround- 

 ed with an opaque enduit which adheres to the tongue, mealy externally, 

 but hardening as it approaches the nucleus. The fracture of the inner 

 part is semi-conchoidal, hardness from six to seven of Mohs' scale. Frag- 

 ments of a dark coloured basaltic rock still adhere to these pebbles ; 

 which, together with their water -worn rolled exterior, indicate them 

 to have been transported from the trap amygdaloids to the West. 

 The swollen state of the river prevented any observation which the 

 section of its banks might have afforded. The sides of the ra- 

 vines, however, presented gneiss, with both white and red felspar, in- 

 terstratified with micaceous hornblende schists. The latter has a fine 

 and almost slaty structure, brilliant lustre, is easily worked, and split 

 by the natives into long slabs for the purposes of building. Iron py- 

 rites are disseminated. A trap dyke running to the East is crossed a 

 little beyond Muddur. The strike of the gneiss, &c. though contorted 

 in some places, runs E. 30 S. and dips at an angle of 60° to N. 35 

 E. The surface of the left bank is much the same as that of the right, 

 it is covered with pebbles brought down by the river; among them I 

 observed a water- worn bit of a grey limestone, probably brought down 

 by the Kistnah from the plain at the base of the Western Ghauts. 

 It may be remarked, passim, that the Kistnah is one of the most 

 Remarks on the Kistnah. considerable rivers of India. It rises among the 

 Mahavaleshwar hills, near the western coast, a 

 little to the S. W. of Satara, and after crossing the peninsula in an 

 East by Southerly direction, falls into the Bay of Bengal at Sippelar 

 Point, a little to the S. of Masulipatam. During a course of about 700 

 miles, it receives the waters of the Yairli, the Warda, the Gutpurba, 

 the Malpurba, the Bima, the Tumbuddra, and the Hydrabad or Mussy 



