202 FOOTE: GEOLOGY OF THE BELLARY DISTRICT. 



type, are now-a-days systematically neglected by the road authorities, 



who elect to use white quartz, because more easily collected in 



fragments and more easily broken, though it is the very worst 



material they could possibly choose. 



No use is or has ever been made as far as I can gather of the vast 



quantity of splendid riband Jasper rock occur- 

 Jasper rocks. . . . 



ring in the Sandur hills, especially in its eastern 



sections. This splendid stone certainly deserves the attention of the 



Madras School of Arts. The variety of tints it occurs in from bright 



scarlet red to the most delicate pinkish white on one side to deep red 



and purple to grey on the other, recommend it as a lovely material 



for inlaid work, such as the Agra work and mosaic, as well as for 



tablets and slabs and pedestals of all sizes. 



The best places for collecting fine specimens of this jasper rock 

 are: "a" The corner in the hills at foot of the Timappaghar 

 (Timanghur of sheet 58), a small ruined hill fort perched on the top 

 of the western side of the range, 3 miles north of Sandur town. 



11 b" On the top of the ridge, north of the little fort here, the beds 

 have been much contorted, and the rock often shows beautiful and 

 complicated u vandyked " patterns of the lamination, both on a large 

 and a small scale. 



11 c. " About two miles to the north-west by north of Timappaghar 

 on the northern side of the range, and just within the boundary of 

 Sandur State, rise some noble cliffs from 300 to 400 feet in height 

 forming one side of a very lovely and thickly-wooded ravine known 

 locally as the Ramgol. The great cliffs are formed of banded jasper- 

 haematite of vivid red and purplish grey, or greyish brown in stripes 

 and often exquisitely vandyked. This riband jasper is one of the most 

 richly coloured rocks I have ever seen, and is even in the rough 

 a material of great beauty. In the great fallen and broken blocks at 

 the bottom of the ravine it is seen to much greater advantage than 

 in the weather-beaten faces of the great cliffs. The jointingjis most 

 rectangular and very kindly and well shaped blocks of sizes, vary- 

 ing from a foot cube to several cubic yards in bulk, could easily be 

 quarried. 



( 202 ) 



