144 MTPDLEMTSS: THE GEOLOGY OF TDAR STATE. 



Much of the sandy alluvium of Tdar State is probably more 



of the nature of wind-borne loess rather than 



Loess, kankar, otc. the resu]t ^ ^ ^^ alluvial action of 



running water. This is shown by the banking up of it in the neigh- 

 bourhood of many of the hilly features. T may instance the northern 

 end of the Berna plateau, the western edge of the Delhi Quartzite 

 country almost everywhere, and the western scarps of the Mundeti 

 hills. As regards the Berna plateau, which may be singled out 

 as a type, it may be said that whilst the valley alluvium to the 

 north keeps more or less to a uniform height, round the foot of the 

 scarp the alluvium and loess seem to swathe in the granite and 

 Delhi Quartzite, completely hiding them except here and there. 

 It is not a mere covering of a few feet, but, from the rivulet beds 

 which cut deeply through it, there must be 40 to 50 feet of it. 



A general section in the neighbourhood of Berna village is 

 instructive as illustrating both the passage 



Section near Berna. ^ rf ^ j^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^^agar 



Sandstone above by means of an intermediate layer of kaolinised 

 granite and also the appearance of the alluvium to the west (text fig. 28). 



LINE OF BERNA VILLAGE 



I 



.. . iSra S£ £r\. Sa n dston e I J 



n ' Granite ' {K ^a» ite ^Jfc^ZZZZzl^ZZ^--^' ! 



r - 7 W 



Fig. 28. 



Immediately beneath the Ahmednagar Sandstone and its often 

 conglomeratic basal bed, there is in nearly every section round 

 the northern part of the Berna plateau, a layer many feet thick 

 but naturally varying, of kaolinised granite in which the granitic 

 structure is quite plainly preserved still. Here and there emerge 

 fragments of good sound granite. The kaolinised variety changes 

 rather suddenly at Berna into one where the. fragments of 

 kaolinised felspar, etc., are more scarce, and there is much 

 dazzling white carbonate of lime in great patches, very soft and 

 powdery. This is near the granite; a few yards away this becomes 

 somewhat harder calcareous tufa, with no trace of felspar, quartz, 



