] 842.] Bijapore to Bellary via Kannighirri. 945 



At about three miles from Bijapore, the kanker and iron ore conglomerate 

 occur in masses : the latter is used as a revetment to a small well into 

 which I descended, and found the water percolating through layers 

 of kanker, dark earth, and iron ore. The fissures were nearly vertical ; 

 direction N. 5 E., dip S. E. by E. Trap, generally covered by a bed 

 of reddish kanker, on which rests the cotton soil, passing into a reddish 

 amygdaloid, reticular and porphyritic, containing calc spar and zeolites, 

 continues to Hukli. Portions of its red clay basis intumesce, and 

 curl up before the blowpipe, indicating the existence of numberless 

 minute particles of zeolite disseminated throughout its substance. 

 With muriatic acid, it formed a gelatinous mass ; in this respect resem- 

 bling the Silesian variety of basalt analyzed by M. Lowe of Vienna. 

 Wells of fresh water are of frequent occurrence. The same formation con- 

 tinues to Bagwari. Between Hukli and Bagwari, a branch of the Doni is 

 crossed, having black steep banks of cotton soil ; this stream is a treache- 

 rous bed of saline and sluggish water, unfit for the use of man or beast. 

 The earth of its banks is highly impregnated with muriate of soda, as 

 shewn by the efflorescence on the surface, and by the adjacent salt 

 works. About seven miles from Hukli, between Musibinahal and Bag- 

 wari, I observed a flat topped hill, about a mile from the left of the road. 

 It was composed from base to summit of a tabular lateritic rock. 

 Cuboidal masses of the same crowned the summit, exactly resembling 

 the masses on the tops of the smooth laterite hills of Malabar and 

 Canara. Farther east, about a mile, runs a low ridge of hills with a 

 N. E. and S. W. direction; the flat contour, and waving direction of 

 which powerfully reminded me of the laterite hills on the Western 

 Coast. I examined the end of the range, and found it to be of the 

 lateritic rock just alluded to ; the rest also appear to be of the same rock. 

 About twelve miles to the south of these, rise two other flat topped 

 hills at Nagarwar, which I am assured by the natives, are of the same 

 rock. The small hill of Hori Math, near Ingliswar, celebrated as being 

 the site of the miraculous birth of the founder of the Jungum sect, is 

 entirely composed of the lateritic rock. These lateritic hills are re- 

 markable, as rising above the low trap elevations amid which they are 

 situated, and are the only hills of any height to be seen for miles around. 

 This circumstance, which is not of rare occurrence in other parts of 

 India, is evidently the result of the denudation of the subjacent trap, 



6 H 



