1846.] from Devamunni and Nundi Cunnama passes. 389 



the limestone and its associated purple shales in a singular manner. 

 The latter are converted into a compact jaspideous rock, and the 

 former loses its carbonaceous colouring matter, and becomes siliceous, or 

 magnesian, or both, and is often coloured, with green bands and specks. 

 The portions nearest to the dykes sometimes break, when struck by the 

 hammer into fragments with smooth sides, marked with dendritic deline- 

 ations. 



Beyond these hills, the head of the central sandstone range of Kur- 

 nool, is rounded to the broad and almost flat valley of Nundial, based 

 on the limestone and its shales, which are generally of a chocolate and 

 reddish hue, with thin seams and layers of faint green. The surface soil 

 is for the most part regur : on a sub-soil of limestone debris, or on beds 

 of kunker, a poor pisiform iron clay is sometimes found, mingled in the 

 lower portions of the regur. 



Eastern Ghauts. — Having crossed the valley of Nundial, the eastern 

 Ghauts are approached at Gazoopilly, a pleasant village at their western 

 base. Their outline is apparently pretty level, continuous, but broken 

 now and then, by a hog-backed ridge, or the rounded frustrum of a cone, 

 rising above the general elevation of the central anticlinal range, which 

 may be about 1,000 feet above the plain; though few of the highest 

 peaks attain the elevation of upwards of 3,000 feet above the sea. The 

 base, sides, and most of the summits, are clothed with jungle infested by 

 tigers. 



Lead Mines and Sulphate of Barytes. — After ascending the Nundi 

 Cunnama pass, about three miles, and crossing the first chain of hills, 

 we turned from the bullock-road into the jungle on our right, and 

 ascended a steep rocky hill. The descent on the other side brought us 

 on the Mahdeopur wood cutters' tracts, along which we proceeded 4 or 

 500 yards easterly, passing a small, rough, stone enclosure, formerly used 

 for washing the diamond alluvium. We now again turned into the 

 jungle on the right of the path, and passed up the dry channel of a 

 brook, which ran westerly in a deep defile. After a few minutes' walk, 

 two jungle-covered hills rose on each bank from the brook's margin. 

 The one on our right was covered with clumps of bamboos, and rugged 

 from top to bottom with choked up excavations. I traversed an area 

 thus broken up, upward of half a square mile in extent. These excava- 



