984 



Notes, chiefly Geological, across the Peninsula from Masulipatam to 

 Goa, comprising remarks on the origin of the Regur* and Laterite ; 

 occurrence of Manganese veins in the latter, and on certain traces 

 of aqueous denudation on the surface of Southern India. By CapL 

 Newbold, F. R. S. Assistant Commissioner, Kurnool. 



Masulipatam stands on the sea coast in nearly 16° N.Lat: and about 

 28 miles N. from the principal northerly embouchure of the Kistnah. 



The adjacent country is the flattish maritime plain which according 

 to Benza, extends between the mouths of the Godavery and the Kistnah. 



The alluvial sands that cover the surface rest on a bluish black 

 tertiary, or post-pliocene clay, resembling regur, imbedding terres- 

 trial marine shells of existing species, and apparently identical with 

 the black clay beds underlying the Cities of Madras and Pondicherry 

 and other places on the Coromandel Coast. In many places the 

 overlying sand is aggregated into a loose sandstone of a nodular form, 

 and often perforated with sinuous and straight cavities, the work of 

 pholades. The structure of this sandstone, which contains fragments 

 of recent shells, is here concretionary. The cementing matter is clay, and 

 carbonate of lime with a little oxide of iron. The sand continues to 

 cover the plain to the distance of 15 or 16 miles inland, partially under 

 laid by these beds of black clay, to within some miles of Bezwarah, 

 when the gneiss is first seen to outcrop from these recent strata. 



The plain of Masulipatam, it is quite clear, once formed the bottom 

 of a lagoon, or marine lake, and was elevated and dried up probably in 

 the post-pliocene period. The channel of the Kistnah, which it is likely 

 supplied much of the fresh water, appears to have suffered a south- 

 erly deflection from the elevatory forces and consequent alteration 

 of surface. 



At Bezwarah the gneiss rises into a ridge, 600 feet high, running 

 N. E. and S. W. its dip confused and contorted. Through a gorge in this 

 ridge at right angles with its direction, runs the Kistnah. No evidence 

 could be discovered of the Kistnah's having cut the channel through 

 the ridge : it appears to have been originally formed, like the trans- 



* Regur, the black, tenacious, but usually fertile soils of central and Southern India 

 rcre known by this name. — Eds. 



