380 [No. 173. 



Notes, chiefly Geological, from Koompta on the Western Coast (S. India) 

 by the Devamunni and Nundi Cunnama Passes, Easterly to Cumbum, and 

 thence Southerly to Chittoor ; comprising a notice of the Diamond and 

 Lead excavations of BuswapUr. By Captain Nkwbold. 



Koompta is a sea-port on the coast of North Canara, in latitude N. 

 14° 26', about 119 miles travelling distance, northerly from Mangalore. 

 It stands at the mouth of a river of the same name ; into which, from the 

 shallowness of the narrow passage through the bar which blocks its 

 embouchure, vessels of more than five corges burthen pass with diffi- 

 culty. It is a depot for the produce of Sircy, Yellopur, Hoobly, Darwar, 

 and much of that part of the Balaghat. 



Laterite here forms the surface stratum : the fundamental rocks are 

 gneiss and hornblende schist. 



The town itself contains about 400 houses, inhabited chiefly by Gou- 

 ras and Halipaiks, Concani Brahmans, Hurkunters, Karins, Gaveets, and 

 Mussulmans. The Haiga Brahmans live usually in de'sams scattered 

 about the country. 



The trade is chiefly in cotton, cotton cloths, rice, betelnut, dried 

 cocoanut, cardamoms, black-pepper, sandal wood, coir-rope, salt, salt-fish, 

 and cashew-nut. 



Near this the river cuts through a bed of rich reddish alluvium, 

 mingled with decayed vegetable matter, evidently a fluviatile deposit 

 from the western Ghauts, and from the intervening low jungly country 

 through which the river passes. This stratum covers an almost flat, 

 highly cultivated plain, bounded on the north and south by long, low 

 ranges of laterite hills, which have apparently formed the ancient banks 

 of a great stream, which is now confined to a small space in its centre. 



The cultivation is chiefly rice, sugarcane, betel, and cocoanut trees. 



We landed at Oopenputtun, a salt depot, about 4 miles from the foot 

 of the Ghauts. Here the lateritic banks had closed in towards the river. 



Laterite continues to the foot of the Devamunni pass, shaded by thick 

 jungle. 



The temperature of the water in the Oopenputtun river was 78° Fah., 

 which was about the temperature of rain water. Temperature of air in 



