94 Report on the Statistics of Banda. [No. 2. 



obscurely in great pseudo-regular rhomboids. The summit of the 

 mountain is covered with the same red gravel (oxide of iron), which is 

 found at Adjighar, on a multitude of places on the Plateau of Rewah, 

 and which is washed at Punna as a diamond mine. Kunkur is entirely 

 wanting, the gravel has been often washed by the people of the garrison, 

 and diamonds have never been found, but as they are occasionally 

 found on the neighbouring mountains on the confines of the Plateau, 

 the seekers are not discouraged ; they are also found in the plains at 

 the foot of these mountains." 



8th. All the more scattered and outlying hills are of granite 

 (rarely of quartz), as we advance southward more or less of the green- 

 stone syenite appear, and finally we find the hills capped with a perpendi- 

 cular escarpe of sandstone of more or less depth. The lower strata of 

 the sandstone appear to me to be more or less altered by heat, where 

 meeting the granite, the metamorphic strata being sometimes only a 

 few inches, as at Kalinjar ; but in other places a thick mass of meta- 

 morphic rock is interposed, consisting either of very hard silicious 

 masses, (sometimes of very great beauty when polished) or of a very hard 

 stone termed by the natives Kurbia (hornstone) ; this forms the 

 base of all the outer hills from the Pysuni to the Ohun. It is notice- 

 able from its tendency to break into irregular, somewhat cubical masses, 

 seamed on the upper surface with deep scars. This tendency often 

 gives the base of a hill, the appearance of having been cut into giant 

 stairs. The stone is used only for building and in the rough, as it is 

 too hard to be dressed. In this rock are the very remarkable caves 

 called the Gupta Godavari, near Chobepur, in Pergannah Bhitri; 

 and although not at present included in the district, being in the lands 

 given to the Kalinjar Chaubehs, I may be permitted to notice so very 

 remarkable a curiosity, as being within the former limits of the district. 

 Where they occur the hornstone must be upwards of 1 50 feet thick : 

 there are two caves one below the other. In the lower one, progress is 

 soon stopped by the depth of the water, which is by the superstitious 

 Hindus believed to come direct from the Godavari ; the upper cave 

 consists of 3 irregular chambers : the walls are perfectly dry, no stalac- 

 tites or any of the usual appearances of caves. The principal hall is 

 of very considerable height, and the summit of the dome-shaped roof 

 appears to have broken in, and the fissure to be filled by a mass, which 



