1845.] across the Peninsula from Mangalore. 651 



inclined to believe they are in sitd, or very nearly so, and are merely 

 rounded by the process of spontaneous concentric exfoliation elsewhere 

 described. They are outgoings of great granite veins or dykes in the 

 gneiss. 



About eight or nine miles east of this, the Mysore frontier is crossed 

 into S. Arcot. Kunker occurs on the banks of the rivulet near the village, 

 both on the surface and in a bed below the alluvial soil. Efflorescences 

 of muriate of soda are also seen in the vicinity. 



Baitmungalum lies on the eastern flank of the gold tract which, 

 according to Lieut. Warren, who examined this district in 1802, extends 

 in a N. by E. direction from the vicinity of Boodicotta to near Ramasun- 

 dra. The gold is distributed in the form of small fragments and dust 

 throughout the alluvium covering this tract. 



At Marcupum, a village about twelve miles S. W. from Baitmunga- 

 lum, are some old gold mines, worked by Tippoo without success. 

 The two excavations at this place demonstrate the great thickness, 

 in some parts, of these auriferous alluvia. They were thirty to forty-five 

 feet deep, respectively. The following is a list of the layers cut through. 



First mine. Second mine. 



1. Deep brown earth, 1^ ft. 1. Three feet of a black argillaceous 



2. Grey argillaceous earth with earth with gravel. 



gravel. 2. Dark brown earth with stones. 



3. Deep brown earth, (No. 1.) 3. Hard clay streaked black and 



4. Hard grey and yellow clay. yellow. 



5. Hard whitish argillaceous earth. 4. Hard large black stones, argilla- 



ceous. 



5. Black earth with gravel. 



6. Hard black clay. 



The stones found in the hard whitish earth, No. 5, of the first mine, 

 are described as of a siliceous nature, colour black, changing to a deep 

 rust-colour where they seem to decay : a few parallel streaks, about 

 which adheres a green and yellow substance, mark their value to the 

 native miners. 



The metalliferous stones in the second mine differ from the above, as 

 they also differ in the matrix. They are of two kinds, viz. 1st, hard, black, 



