1845.] across the Peninsula of Southern India. 499 



curve by Muddoordroog, Chellumpolliam, and Mymundeldroog to the 

 great break of the Eastern Ghauts at Sautghur. 



The low hills at the foot of the Naggery chain are of granite, gneiss, 

 hornblende, schist, and basaltic greenstone. The height of the main 

 chain itself near Cumbancumdroog, where it supports a small table- 

 land, is stated at 2550 feet above the sea. The sandstone cliffs by which 

 the chain is crested have a columnar aspect ; but those forming the 

 lower part of the ridge clearly proved this appearance to be deceptive, 

 and that the rock rests in thick beds on the granite, having a dip 

 towards the west. The columnar appearance is owing to the nearly 

 vertical fissures which intersect the strata at right angles ; and which, 

 in the thicker beds, constitute their most marked feature. A highly 

 illustrative instance of the jointed structure is seen in the mural sand- 

 stone cliffs cresting the sacred hill of Tripati. These cliffs usually 

 support table-lands of greater or less extent. To the east of the chain, 

 between it and the sea, runs a low flat-topped ridge, which for want of 

 leisure I was unable to examine. The Naggery hills, as the traveller 

 proceeds in a N.W. direction, lose their peculiar crested appearance, 

 and acquire a smoother outline, — a feature possibly to be attributed to 

 the almost total disappearance of the granite and greenstone on which 

 they rest. The Tripati spur, however, which takes an abrupt turn to 

 the east, resumes this appearance ;* but it again disappears in the hills 

 of Curcumbaddy : the latter, as we ascend towards the table-land, 

 diminish in height, and acquire rounder tops and gentler declivities, 

 in general clothed with vegetation. 



Tripati. The approach to Tripati from the south is extremely 

 beautiful, lying over a large and cultivated plain cinctured by an 

 amphitheatre of picturesque hills. The plain gradually slopes to the foot 

 of the holy mountain, at the southern base of which the town of Tripati 

 lies. The mountain itself, with its mural crest of reddish sandstone, the 

 path for pilgrims to the celebrated shrine leading up its steep side, 

 commanded by three antique pyramidal gateways, and the town at the 



* 1 have since heard from Capt. Bell, Engineers, that a porphyritic granite is seen 

 at the western base of this sacred mountain. Greenish and dark coloured whetstones 

 are often used by native barbers all over the country, which are quarried in the argil- 

 laceous beds near Tripati, but ar,e not so much prized as the imported Turkey oil 

 stones. 



