LOWER TRANSITION ROCKS. 121 



remains conspicuous for about half a mile, after which it sinks down 

 rapidly to the south- east and its further course becomes problematical. 

 The one conspicuous outcrop of the Devadara haematites here noted 

 occurs half a mile south of Kammataravu (Cumbudhurroo) where the 

 haematite forms the broad crest of a ridge some 150 feet in height, 

 which apparently consists entirely of pure steel-grey crystalline haema- 

 Kammataravu specu- tite (specular iron) of moderately coarse texture 

 * ar iron - and intense hardness. This is the richest mass 



of the iron ore I found in the Sandur hills or, indeed, in any Dharwar 

 tract I have yet seen. This magnificent mass of ore appears quite 

 untouched, the native iron-smelters being here also true to the 

 generally prevailing custom of using only soft ores, even though com- 

 paratively quite poor, in order to save the labour of quarrying or 

 mining and breaking up into sizes suitable for the low degree of heat 

 they succeed in raising in their little clay-built furnaces. 



To the north-west this rich ore rapidly passes into a poorer variety, 

 such as is ordinarily met with, and to the south-east the speedy termi- 

 nation of the ridge which sinks rapidly into the plain is doubtless 

 explainable on the same principle. 



Except for this ridge the Kammataravu end of the plateau is very 

 level, and its surface entirely hidden by local pseudo laterite and thick 

 red soil. 



The upper of the four Devadara haematites skirts and in fact forms 

 the eastern edge of the plateau for several miles, and, after forming a 

 short and very low ridge to the north-west of Appianhalli, sinks gra- 

 dually as it runs along the ridge west and south of that village. The 

 lowest of the four haematite beds does not appear to be represented 

 in the Appianhalli western ridge. If it is, it has thinned out so 

 greatly as to have become perfectly inconspicuous, unlike the three 

 upper beds, which show strongly at the northern end of the ridge, but 

 the lowest of these three, as pointed out at page 117, thins out and 

 disappears before reaching the southern extremity of the synclinal. 



The Devadara haematites are underlaid by a great contemporane- 

 ous trapflow, which occupies a wide space in the 

 The Sandur trapflow. - 



valley around Sandur town and fills great part 



( 121 ) 



