26 FOOTE : GEOLOGY OF THE BELLARY DISTRICT. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OCCURRING IN BELLARY DISTRICT. 



The rock formations met with in the District may be conveniently 

 arranged in four principal groups as in the schedule here given: 



T , T _ n r Subaerial : Talus formations.— Cemented Taluses. — 



I v. Recent and Post \ f» j t * •*• n 1^1 r ^ ™ 



Tkrtiarv ) Pseudo-Latentic Breccias. — Kankar formations. — Blown 



(sands. — Regur. — Red soils. — Mixed and white soils. 



Alluvial : Modern alluvial deposits (loams and shingle 



beds) of the Tungabhadra and its tributaries. — Fossiliferous 



Travertin. — Consolidated shingles.— High level gravels (old 



alluvium) of the Tungabhadra. — Shingle fans. 



III. Tertiary (?) Terrace Laterite. 



II. Lower Tran- ( Dharwar system — Principal metalliferous rocks in South 

 sition. (India, 



p «\ I. Archaean or ~\ 



Metamorphic C Granitoids and gneisses with associated traps, etc. 

 and Plutonic, j 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ARCH^AN, OR METAMORPHIC (GNEISSIC) AND PLUTONIC 



ROCKS. 



The Archaean rocks, which form the fundamental series in the 

 peninsula, are very largely developed in the Bellary district and 

 occupy fully five-sixths of its area. Their extent alone therefore 

 renders them the most important geological series to be treated of, 

 and they are deserving of much interest and of far closer study than 

 could be bestowed upon them because of their general poverty in 

 minerals of economic importance, to the quest for which much more 

 time had to be devoted. 



Taking the district as a whole, it must be described as consisting 

 mainly of granitoid rocks, generally of porphyritic character, the 

 metamorphic or gneissic crystallines playing a very subordinate part 

 in most places, though of such great importance in other parts of the 

 Madras Presidency. 

 ( 26 ) 



