318 Notes, chiefly Geological, [No. 172. 



argillaceous or felspathic ; in another, quartzose ; now, so ferruginous 

 as to pass into clay ironstone ; and at another time, presenting nothing 

 but a bed of compact lithomarge. 



The soil in the flats and vallies, where the Coorgs cultivate rice, is 

 generally of a pale ochreous colour ; and is clayey from the disintegra- 

 tion of the felspars which prevail now in the hypogene rocks. Frag- 

 ments of quartzy iron, aggregated garnets, and quartz, mica slate, 

 schorl and kaolin were picked up loose on the road. 



Junction of laterite with granite. — The hill on which the Coorg 

 Raja's palace stands at Verajunderpetta is of granite, capped with late- 

 rite. This granite is composed of a brownish felspar, resembling that 

 of Mount Horeb, of quartz, black mica, and hornblende. The line of 

 superposition is seen on the descent towards the Portuguese Chapel. 

 The granite is hard and crystalline at the junction, and not in the 

 least soft or friable, as it would have been had the mass of laterite, 

 which caps it, been nothing more than its weathered (in sitti) upper 

 portions ; as supposed by many theorists and speculators on the origin 

 of this singular rock. 



Quarries of laterite. — At a little distance are the quarries whence the 

 blocks of laterite used for building are excavated. The laterite here 

 lies under a thick layer of moist turfy earth, which keeps its surface 

 from hardening under the sun's rays or atmospheric exposure, and is 

 so soft and sectile as to be cut out with the Indian spade, like turf 

 from a peat bog. 



The town. — The palace of Verajunderpetta was built only two 

 generations back, by the then Raja of Coorg, whose name it now bears. 

 It is a large building, partly in the European style, on the top of a 

 hill or rising ground to the west of the Pettah. The portico is sup- 

 ported by two elephants, twelve or fourteen feet high, constructed of 

 stucco and brick, over iron frames. 



The woodwork, glazed windows, roof, and every thing about the 

 palace, is finished in a massive style ; and convenient outhouses are 

 enclosed, with the palace, within a high and massive wall. 



The town is said to contain about 300 houses, inhabited princi- 

 pally by the Coorg Lingayet cultivators of the soil, a few Telingas, 

 Bengalis, Mussulmans, and a flock of Roman Catholic Christians 

 (about 100), under their Portuguese pastor. There are two Jungum 

 maths. 



