ARCH^AN AND PLUTONIC ROCKS. 45 



over many hundreds of acres. So rugged is this tract that having 

 through the stupidity of my guide (a local man), got entangled in it 

 with my horse, I had very serious difficulty in getting the animal 

 through safely. 



At and around Chornur the granite gneiss is a well-banded grey 

 and black variety, with a vertical dip, and striking a degree or two 

 west of north. 



The hills all around Maxhal Banda are blocky instead of smooth, 

 which generally indicates a rock of coarse grain, if not positively 

 porphyritic in texture. 



As Gudikote is approached the grey granite changes to a bluish 



tint, and the size of the blocks into which it 

 Gudikote Giant Scree. 



weathers, increases immensely, those in the 



Gudikote hill itself being about the largest I have seen in any part of 

 South India. Here, too, the blocks are lying about in the wildest 

 confusion, and make access to the summit of the hill a labour of great 

 difficulty, although the direct distance cannot be more than 2 or 300 

 yards. I tried to gain the summit with the help of a guide who pro- 

 fessed to know the way, but after an hour's very severe climbing 

 failed to accomplish my purpose, and had to give it up because it was 

 getting dark. Many of the blocks are 20 and 30 feet long and nearly 

 as thick. The climb could not be accomplished without a ladder. 

 When the fort was in use there must have been passages known to 

 the garrison, and in some places passages had been deliberately 

 blocked up. 



The rocks east and north-east of Gudikote are very porphyritic 

 and often show systems of vertical and horizontal jointing, which give 

 rise to the formation of mural lines of scarping which might easily 

 deceive people unacquainted with the peculiarities of structure of 

 these hills into the belief that the hills had in part been artificially 

 shaped. 



The culminating point in the Gudikote hills is Peddaperla 



Trigonometrical station, a noble hill rising to the 

 Peddaperla hill. & ,-,■., 



height of 2,836 feet above sea-level, and with one 



( 45 ) 



