ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS. 1 85 



A long cliff section of reddish loam, from 30 to 40 feet thick, 



occurs in the reach of the river immediately 



remafn^inthfallu^a. 311 north o f Honur (3 miles north-west of Huvina 



Haddagalli). I searched this loam cliff and 



many others at other places up and down the Tungabhadra with 



great care for fossil bones, but was everywhere unsuccessful. 



No good sections were noted anywhere in the banks of the Hag- 

 gari, which are generally low or else not scarped into sections fit for 

 study, and the same was the case with regard to the alluvium of the 

 Chinna Haggari in the Kudligi and Haddagulli taluqs. 



In a small cliff section in the Avinamadugu or Sultanpur nullah, 

 _ ,.,. , , about half a mile south of where the Bellary 



Crocodilian and other J 



bones in the Avina- Dharwar high road crosses it, a small number of 

 fossil vertebrate bones and numerous fossil 

 freshwater shells were found by me. Among the bones was a large 

 crocodilian vertebra, now in the Survey Museum, but not specifi- 

 cally determined as yet. The fossil shells are all of living species 

 now occurring in that quarter. The genera represented were Unio, 

 Corbicula, Melania, Paludina, Lymnaea, Planorbis, all of living species. 



They are deposited in regular laminae in the loam which is other- 

 wise unstratified. 



A great show of reddish loam occurs along the banks of the Nari 

 Halla (Sandur river). It owes its red colour 



Nan p Halia ViUm ° £ ^ to the S reat < l uantit y of ferruginous matter 

 brought down from the Sandur hills. The 

 numerous bright red jasper pebbles which make the bed of the 

 Tungabhadra quite gay at the ford at Bagewari, in Bellary taluq, 

 appear all to have been carried down the Nari Halla. 



A phenomenon of some interest, of which various examples are 



to be seen in the district, is the cementation of 



Cementation of gra- g rave l beds by deposition of calcareous matter 



in them as the flood waters dry up. The beds 



thus solidified are of the most varied character, from mere grits up to 



the coarsest boulder gravel. The finest examples of such cementa- 



( 185 ) 



