1S4 FOOTE: GEOLOGY OF THE BELLARY DISTRICT. 



had been deposited over a cemetery of late neolithic or early iron age. 

 The graves had been only just covered over by the deposit, and it was 

 already being eroded largely by the local rainfall at the eastern end 

 of the cemetery, and some of the graves re-exposed and partly worn 

 away. There was nothing to show the exact date when the loam 

 deposit was piled over the prehistoric graves, but it was probably at 

 some very remote period, speaking historically, for their surfaces had 

 been but very little disturbed before they were covered up, 



The graves stand upon a level tract lying about a quarter mile north 

 of the high cliffy bank of the river, but a rather lower level than the 

 present top of the bank, which is the red loamy bed covering the 

 old cemetery. In and under the loam bed at the edge of the cliff 

 occurs an immense quantity of antique pottery, mostly broken, but 

 occasionally entire, and showing by its domestic character that the 

 place is the site of an ancient settlement, and was probably the 

 habitation of the old people that had buried their relations in the 

 adjacent cemetery. 



The alluvial cliff, about half a mile west of the old pottery-yield- 

 ing site, showed the following section :-— 



3. Red sandy loam with prehistoric pottery in 



fragments 6" to 3' 



2, Drab sandy clay with kankar in very 



variable proportions . . .6'' to 8' 



1. Blackish sandy clay (washed up cotton 

 soil) with sub-fossil shells, the whole 

 deposit rather kankarized . . 15' to 20' 



The sub-fossil shells consisted of corbicula, a medium-sized unio 

 with very wrinkled umbo, and very numerous specimens of a large 

 paludina. No traces of fossil bones rewarded a long and careful 

 search, despite the very promising look of the formation. On the 

 south or British bank of the river the alluvial section was obscure, 

 and the fossiliferous clay could not be traced, nor the position of the 

 high-level shingle bed abovementioned (page 181) relatively to it 

 determined, 



( 184 ) 



