ARCHAEAN AND PLUTONIC ROCKS. 59 



Less interesting than the Bellary hills, but only because more re- 

 mote from civilization, is Kapgal, 4^ miles to the 

 Kapgal or Peacock hills. . . 



north-east by north, a fine bold hill rising 500 



feet or more over the plain, and traversed axially by a very large dyke 

 of dioritic trap, which, contrary to the usual rule, hns weathered away 

 more rapidly than the surrounding granite, and has in consequence left 

 the granite face against which it once abutted standing as a fine cliff 

 from 80 to 100 feet high, which dominates the east end and forms a 

 very conspicuous feature from the eastward. 



The Kapgal rock is very like the Bellary granite, and the 

 Sungankal group of hills to the south of it must also, I think, be 

 reckoned as part of the same band of rock. The horizontal jointing 

 is very strongly developed on Kapgal, producing the usual mural 

 effect, and giving rise to the formation of many rock-shelters, which 

 afforded good shelter to the celt-making people of early times, who 

 had a large and important settlement on the hill, and carried on a 

 considerable celt-making industry, using the trap rock they found in 

 the great dyke above referred to. Some of the best rock-shelters 

 are at the very top of the hill among the huge blocks which form the 

 actual summit. 



The summit affords a good illustration of the formation of extra 

 large blocks, almost tower-like in shape, by the unusually great 

 apartness (if the word be allowable) of two of the great horizontal 

 joints. 



It is in the Bellary sub-division particularly that one becomes alive 

 „ . . , x , to the great hindrance in working: out the 



Masking of the sur- ° & 



face by the black soil extent of the several rock groups, and their 

 sp inter-relations that is caused by the cotton soil 



spreads which intervene and cover up completely so great a portion 

 of the surface. You may often pass over several miles of the black 

 soil without meeting the tiniest outcrop, or the outcrop may be one 

 of uncharacteristic rock, or of rock too decomposed to be recogniz- 

 able with any certainty, or of rock which may be doubtfully in situ. 

 Thus I believe that the Bellary and Kapgal rocks belong to one 



( 59 ) 



