114 FOOTE: GEOLOGY OF THE BELLARY DISTRICT. 



In making a diagonal traverse sou'-westward across the Donimale 

 Kolla Rameo Kolla starting from Ettinahalli traveller's bungalow, I 

 §orge - gained the northern edge of the plateau by fol- 



lowing a narrow path leading from the abandoned village of Virapur 

 through the Kolla Ramen Kolla, a gorge which makes a narrow gate- 

 like cut through a very thick bed of haematite quartzite. This gorge 

 is a very beautiful object as seen from the Bhimagandi pass and nearly 

 equally so from the lovely little valley above the gorge. The gate, 

 which is a very narrow one, is formed by vertical cliffs from 200 to 

 250 feet in height, and above the cliffs steep rocky scarps rise on 

 either side for several hundred feet higher. A clump of forest in the 

 mouth of the gorge and rising up in front of the eastern cliff com- 

 pletes the beauty of a very notable corner in the Bhimagandi pass. 

 East of Donimale, and separated from it by a deep valley draining 

 W 1 Bhadra Konda * n *-° ^ ne Narihalla outside of the synclinal, rises 

 spur. a high bold spur, locally known as the Wala 



Bhadra Konda. The northern end of it is higher than the northern 

 end of the Donimale and commands a good view across it, but it is 

 not quite so high as the culminating ridge near the centre of the 

 Donimale. The intermediate valley, locally known as the Bardha 

 Kolla, is remarkable for its beautiful scenery, its western side being 

 formed by the exposure of the under side of a great haematite quart- 

 zite bed which is slightly inverted and which forms the eastern side 

 of the Donimale wedge and shows as a brilliantly red cliff. The 

 haematite band which forms the summit of the great Wala Bhadra 

 spur extends for fully 6 miles south-south-eastward till cut by a 

 short but very fine cross gorge close to the village of Ubbalagandi.* 

 This haematite band is the western one of a pair underlying the 



The great burns on the hillsides are generally set down to human action whether 

 accidental or mischievous, but they are not always so, for I was witness on one occasion 

 of the grass being set alight by a flash of lightning. I saw the lightning fall among 

 the grass on a slope about a quarter of a mile from my camp at Gauripur close to the 

 north-western end of the Raman Drug ridge. The grass began to blaze immediately 

 and a big burn would have inevitably taken place had not a smart shower, which 

 followed the lightning in a few minutes, extinguished the flames. 



1 Nol be confounded with the great western gorge of the Narihalla. 



( U4 ) 



