1845.] across the Peninsula of Southern India. 401 



From Nellore by the North bank of the Pennaur to the base of the 

 Eastern Ghauts. 



Sungum, From Nellore by Kohor the laterite may be traced 

 westerly to the vicinity of Dovoor, resting on the granitic and 

 hypogene rocks about nineteen miles W.N.W. from Nellore. At the 

 Sungum, or confluence of the Pennaur with the two small streams of 

 the Bogheyroo and Berapeyroo, the first rocky elevation is seen since 

 quitting the coast about twenty-nine miles distant, and nearly mid- 

 way between the sea and the Eastern Ghauts. It appears as a short 

 range abutting on the Pennaur river, and running N. by E. to about 

 the distance of two miles. It is composed, at the village of the Sun- 

 gum, of a massive quartz rock in indistinct stratification, cleft occasion- 

 ally, like the laterite, by intersecting partings and vertical fissures 

 which divide the rock into parallelograms. The planes of the former 

 have a dip of about 5° towards the East : the vertical fissures run 

 irregularly, but the greater part have a direction of N. by W. This 

 quartzy rock passes from opaque and granular, to compact, translucent 

 chert, of various shades of red, brown, green, and white. It contains 

 disseminated scales of mica of a golden colour, which glitter like 

 those in avanturine, and nests of brown iron ore. 



If the marly horizontal partings are really the planes of stratifi- 

 cation, it may be inferred from its conformability that this quartz 

 rock does not belong to the hypogene series which is seen in highly 

 inclined beds near its base, penetrated by veins of granite (as seen at 

 Pollium, a village between Dovoor and Sungum,) but that it is an 

 altered outlier of the sandstone mural crests which are seen from this 

 on the Western horizon capping the granite and hypogene schists of 

 the Eastern Ghauts. 



A glimmering hornblende schist, and gneiss veined with granite, 

 with a white mica replaced here and there by schorl, are found at the 

 bases of the quartz hills of Sungum. 



A cluster of Hindu temples, the principal of which is dedicated to 

 Iswara, as at the holy Sungums (or confluences) of the Kistnah, Bhima, 

 &c, surrounded by a lofty wall, crowns a rugged mass of this rock 

 that projects from the main ridge into the sandy bed of the river, 

 which at this season of the year presents a dreary waste of sand, 



3k 



