248 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF INDIA. 



continued down the valley of the latter river, and it was in the 

 following out of this great series of the plant-bearing sandstones 

 with the economically interesting coal measures of their Damuda 

 subdivision that this immense tract of wild and poorly populated 

 country came to be visited by the survey. The Pranhita-Grodavari 

 area is thus a narrow strip of Peninsular India, extending from 

 about Dhaba or Porsa on the "Wardha in a S.S.E. direction to 

 within 40 miles north of Ellore. With the exception of the bottom 

 or floor rocks, namely, the gneiss or crystalline series, which extends 

 far to the eastward and westward, all the other formations occur as 

 roughly parallel outcrops or bands. It is still practically what 

 it has been for ages, the home of a great portion of the old 

 Pre- Aryan race of Kols or Gonds, and a centre for the huge trains 

 of grain- and salt-carrying pack bullocks of the Brinjaris, who find 

 the region well adapted for their temporary settlements and feeding 

 grounds. Judging, however, by the ruins of many large forts, 

 splendid temples, and great tanks scattered over part of the country, 

 the Aryan conquerors exercised there a benign and prosperous 

 sway. 



The better known outcrops of Barakar strata showing workable 

 coal of any value are in the southern part of the above field, 

 at Damerchela, Lingala, and to the westward in the two fields of 

 Kamawaram and Singareni.* Iron is obtained from the Chikiala 

 sandstones, and gold in small quantities has been washed for, having 

 been found to be brought down into the Godavari by streams from 

 Haidarabad territory. 



An irregularly shaped strip of theCarnatic, including rather more 

 than the southern half of the Nellore district and portions of the 

 northern edges of those of Madras and North Arcot, was traversed 

 by Mr. W. King and the late Mr. Charles M. Oldham in 1861, 

 while following out the transition rocks of the Cuddapah district. 

 Mr. King's account was written subsequently}- and after Mr. Oldham's 

 death The region is in the nature of a coastal plain with a more 

 or less distinct step or ghat edging an upland, the former being of 

 gneiss, covered up in a scattered way (more perfectly towards 

 the coast) by later formations, while the western hill wall is of 



* A report on the progress and results of borings for coal in the Godavari valley 

 near Damagudem and Bhadraclialara, by Mr. \V. T. Blanford, forms an Appendix to 

 Vol. XVIII. of the " Memoirs." 



| See " Memoirs," Vol, XVI, 



