LOWER TRANSITION ROCKS. 75 



southward the Dharwar rocks extend into and across the valley of 

 the Kaveri almost to the northern slope of the Nilgiris. The dis- 

 tance between the southernmost and northernmost points at which 

 Dharwars are known to occur is over 300 miles, while from west 

 to east, measured in latitude N. 14°, the area occupied by the 

 Dharwars is rather over 200 miles in width. The Dharwar system 

 Erosion into great was exposed to great contortion and deform- 

 bands. ation at a very remote geological period, and 



this had been followed by a vast period of denudation, during 

 which the enormous folds into which they had been forced pre- 

 viously were largely eroded, and cut up into the great bands in 

 which they now occur. In general structure these bands are of 

 two types — in the one, the band is a narrow synclinal fold, or a series 

 of narrow synclinals echeloned after each other at exceedingly acute 

 angles. In the second type, the band shows a natural erosion boundary 

 on one side, and, on the other, is faulted down against and among the 

 underlying granitoids. It is owing to these faultings down into the 

 older rocks that the softer schistose members of the system have in 

 many cases escaped from being entirely denuded away. 



Four of the numerous bands in which the Dharwar rocks are 

 disposed about the Southern Deccan lie within the limits of Bellary 

 district, and all extend across it in a more or less south-easterly di- 

 rection. The bands here represented are, taking them from west to 

 east, the following : — 



1. The Dharwar-Shifnoga band : the eastern side of which crosses 

 the Tungabhadra a little below its junction with the Warda, in the 

 Dharwar district, and runs southward some 25 miles nearly parallel 

 with the general course of the Tungabhadra till it crosses the Mysore 

 boundary a little north of Harihar railway station. This tract, which 

 measures about 190 square miles in extent, I shall, for brevity, desig- 

 nate as the Kunchur 1 (Coonchoor) tract, 



1 In my paper on the Dharwar system, which was published in the Records. G. S. I., 

 Vol.xxii, 1888, I referred to this tract, of which I had then only seen the northern 

 extremity, as the " Kunchur outlier ", under the impression that it was an outlier which it 

 seemed to be as seen from the top of the Birrabi hill. 



( 75 



