HIGH LEVEL LATERITOID TALUS TERRACES. 179 



The extent of these talus-breccia terraces is considerable, the 

 Extent of the terraces, western terrace measuring about a mile in its 

 greatest width, and nearly two miles in length along its southern edge, 

 but only about a mile along its contact with the base of the plateau 

 scarp. In plan it is rudely lozenge-shaped with the longer axis lying 

 south-west by west to north-east by east. The eastern plateau is 

 about 2 miles long and | of a mile wide near its western end, and 

 narrows steadily as followed eastward. 



The terraces were formerly of much greater extent, a fact proved 

 Former extent of the by the occurrence of two well-marked little 

 formation. outliers on the tops of two small hills, one, half 



a mile south of the eastern extremity of the eastern terrace, and 

 the second one nearly a mile and a half further east. They rest on 

 decomposed granite similar to that underlying the main terraces. 

 Since the separation of these outlying talus breccia patches from the 

 main terrace, the face of the country has undergone great erosion, 

 the granite surface having been cut into and removed over a con- 

 siderable area to depths of from 100 to nearly 300 feet. The surface 

 of the granite tract south of the Kumclraswami plateau must average 

 between 2,300 and 2,400 feet above sea-level according to the heights 

 ascertained by the Mysore Topographical Survey. 



No clue to the geological age of these remarkable talus terraces 

 could be obtained, no trace of any organism having been met with 

 in the haematitic breccia forming them, The great amount of ero- 

 sion the country has undergone since their formation shows that 

 they cannot with probability be classed as of recent origin. Two 

 Other talus breccias. other examples of the kind, but of much smaller 

 area, were noted elsewere — the one on the northern slope of the 

 Kumdraswami plateau overlooking the village of Nandihalli, the 

 other on the eastern edge of the plateau overlooking the abandoned 

 village of Bussuanooty. The first of these terraces stands out from 

 the scarp of the plateau very much like a bracket, its surface 

 being approximately level and its northern edge very abruptly 

 scarped. 



M2 ( 179 ) 



