762 Notes, chiefly Geological, [No. 166. 



The superstratum of soil is sandy, frequently entirely composed of 

 sand, some of which has doubtless been washed from, or forms part of 

 the sandstone and silicified wood beds. In other parts a rich greyish 

 clayey loam, mixed with a portion of lime, occurs, yielding fine crops. 

 Staple articles of cultivation are similar to those of the last village. 

 Kunker is occasionally met with in surface nodules, and as a sub- 

 stratum. The water is sometimes brackish here. 



Wallundoorpett was once a place of some note under a Poligar, but 

 now dwindled into insignificance. A sulphuriferous earth is said by 

 natives to exist in the Wodiapolium jungle near Womaloor, a few 

 miles south of this, occurring in the bed of a swamp, about half a 

 mile in extent. Specimens were sent me by Mr. Fischer of Salem. 

 The soil is of a greyish colour, friable, and the sulphur occurs in small 

 crystals and impure nodules distributed through the soil. 



Chinna Salem. — The country between this and Wallundoorpett 

 is an undulating plain. On approaching Chinna Salem, which is 

 about twenty-six and a half miles W. from Wallundoorpett, and fifty- 

 five miles direct distance from the coast at Cuddalore, a chain of lofty 

 hills with undulating ridge, broken in one or two places, is seen to 

 the NNE. coming down from the N. apparently about ten or twelve 

 miles distant, but ending or turning abruptly towards the W. These 

 hills are the southern extremity of the Subghautine chain, called the 

 Jeddya or Javidie, which flanks the eastern side of the Amloor valley. 



R6gur, or black cotton soil, I first observed covering the plain between 

 Chinna Salem and Wallundoorpett, immediately to the W. of the 

 Traveller's bungalow at Congrypollum, after crossing the rivulet 

 which flows from the Jeddya hills by Verdachelum to the Vellaur or 

 Porto Novo river. It is much mingled with the sandy alluvial local 

 soil, with which it covers the surface in alternate stripes. The shrub 

 which is almost peculiar to Regur, viz. the Jatropha glandulifera, is 

 seen in great strength ; and also the interlacing fibrous roots of the 

 nutgrass. Crops of cotton now begin to appear. Beds of kunker are 

 seen in ravines and stream banks, and sometimes occurring in higher 

 situations, in the form of small mammillary mounds, which appear to 

 have concreted around the mouths of springs now choked up. 



In the plain, hornblende schist is the most prevalent rock. Gneiss, 

 often granitoidal, alternates with it, still penetrated by the porphyritic 

 veins previously described. The layers of gneiss are seen in some 



