1846.] from Devamunni and Nundi Cunnama passes. 393 



the bottom of the pass ; till, at length, it debouches on the sandy bed of 

 the Pennaur, a little to the east of Sidhout fort. 



Sidhout. — The blue limestone is said by the natives to be found un- 

 der the sands of the river ; and it is seen in blocks in the walls of the 

 fort ; but the hills, which I had an opportunity of examining, were all of 

 sandstone, and sandstone conglomerate. 



A beautifully variegated variety of sandstone is quarried near this. 

 The Hindu pillars in the fort gateways, which are carved out of it, have 

 the appearance of an elegantly veined wood. The tints are often waved, 

 or acutely angled bands of different shades of brown, resembling on 

 a large scale those in agate. 



Diamonds, I was informed, during the rule of the Patan Nawabs of 

 Cuddapah, who often made Sidhout their place of residence, were dug at 

 Durjipilly, and, at another place among the neighbouring hills. 



The Pass of Sidhout. — The pass of Sidhout is a transverse valley, 

 as before stated, through which the Pennaur flows from the table lands 

 of the ceded districts, through the Eastern Ghauts to the Coromandel 

 Coast. There does not, however, appear to be any great or sudden 

 lowering of level to the coast-land, as we find that the height of Cudda- 

 pah, 507 feet above the sea (Cullen), hardly exceeds that of the plain 

 at the eastern base of the Ghauts. The course of the Pennaur, there- 

 fore, at Sidhout, from the little inclination of its bed to the eastward, 

 is not more accelerated than when winding its way over the gently slop- 

 ing table lands. The general direction of this transverse break in the 

 Ghauts is easterly ; though, like that of Gundicutta, it makes consider- 

 able angles. It is about twenty- four miles long, and about two and a 

 half miles broad at Sidhout. I have not had an opportunity of examining 

 its eastern exit near the Someswar pagoda ; where, I understand, 

 the river is confined between two rocky ridges, about half a mile 

 asunder. 



From Sidhout to Cuddapah. — The road lies along the valley of the 

 Pennaur, which opens out to the westward into the horizon-bounded 

 plains of Cuddapah. The rock seen in the lowest situations, is a bluish 

 and rather grey crystalline limestone, bounded on either side by the high 

 sandstone ranges of the easterly ghauts. The limestone is veined with 

 quartz and calcspar, and imbeds cubic crystals of iron pyrites. A few 



