GEOLOGY OF THE AREA. 37 



which still contains the clay in its tubes, forms a valuable soil on 

 which rice and other grains may be grown. Jungle grows very well 

 on this soil while it is quite absent from the older laterite. The 

 effect of this is that the summits of the hills capped by plateau la- 

 terite are covered with grass while the valleys are full of trees and 

 undergrowth. 



The use of laterite for building is too w 7 ell known to require much 

 remark. It is cut. when fresh, with a kind of axe, and hardens on ex- 

 posure. None but the best varieties can resist a strong crushing 

 force, and hence the failure of many bridges. It answers best when 

 protected from the weather by an overhanging roof. 



It is to the laterite that Malabar owes the perennial character of 

 many of its streams. The rock being porous takes up a large quan- 

 tity of water in the rainy season and serves as a reservoir during the 

 hot weather. 



There is a good deal of iron ore of very good quality in South 

 Malabar ; but even here, as in so many other parts of South India, 

 the want of fuel is the great drawback to its manufacture. In Erna*d 

 Taluk the only place in which iron ore is at present made is in Porur 

 amsam, but formerly it was made in Chembreri and Pandikdd. The 

 iron is of very good quality, but the workmen do not know how to 

 make steel. 



In Walluvandd Taluk mines are now worked in Nemini and Ta- 

 chambcira amsams; but some time ago there were mines in Mangada, 

 Arakkaparamba, Melattur, and Vettatur. 



The ore used is sometimes magnetite and sometimes haematite. 

 In Mangada the old mines are in laterite and do not reach downward 

 to the unlateritised part of the gneiss. In Arakkaparamba the ore is 

 found in a quartz run and the upper surface of the ore is lateritised. 

 In Nemini the ore is magnetite and occurs, in crystals in the gneiss. 



Among the alluvial deposits near the mouths of the rivers, and 

 especially of the Beypore River, very good clays for bricks and tiles 

 are found ; and it is from these clays that the tile works of the Basel 

 Mission at Calicut obtain their materials. 



( 237 ) 



