ARCHiEAN AND PLUTONIC ROCKS. 57 



remarkable likeness to that shown in a published portrait of the 

 first Napoleon lying dead (in St. Helena), a likeness which had 

 been recognized before my time. The likeness is best seen in the 

 evening twilight. North hill itself, as seen from the eastward, 

 has a decidedly castellated appearance, and in this respect, as 

 in others, differs considerably from the Fort hill, a little to the 

 south. 



The rock forming the Fort hill is much less porphyritic in struc- 

 , ture, of a lighter grey colour, and in particular 



not cut up by similar regular master-joints to 

 anything like the same extent. The basal joint is not horizontal, but 

 inclined to be quaquaversal ; and hence the general shape of the hill 

 is rather domoid than castellated. On the north-east and part of the 

 north side, the upper part of the hill in particular is covered by a 

 confused scree of huge, fallen, and, generally more or less shapeless, 

 blocks, which is like the screes at Anagundi and Gudikote already 

 described. On the south-western and western sides, on the contrary, 

 the slope of the dome was too steep for a great scree to remain, 

 and nature has been largely helped by the hand of the quarryman, 

 and the material of which the fortifications have been built have been 

 largely supplied by breaking up the blocks, with the result that the 

 south-western face has been completely bared of blocks. The pro- 

 cess of clearing them away is still in progress on a small scale ; but 

 the great clearance was evidently made long since, for the scaled 

 face has already been much affected by weathering 1 . 



The coarser the granite the more deeply will it, as a rule, be 

 found to be weathered. This is certainly the case with regard to the 

 Bellary hills : the coarse granite on the north hill, especially on its 

 northern side, will be found to have been penetrated more deeply by 

 atmospheric action than the finer textured rock of the Fort hill. The 



1 A most amusing, but exceedingly far-fetched, explanation of the bareness of the 

 south-western slope was lately given in a letter to the Madras Mail, which explana- 

 tion deserves, for its absurd ingenuity, not to be forgotten. I give an extract from it in 

 the appendix. 



( 57 ) 



