OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 123 



It is bounded on all sides by Granite, which every where appears t& 

 pass under it and to form its basis. 



Some parts detached from the main range such as Naggerry Nose, Wor- 

 ramallipet and Nandigaon, a town on the Hyderabad frontier, with many 

 others, have only the upper third of their summits of Sandstone and Quarta 

 fock ; the basis or remaining two-thirds being of granite.* 



/ This range of mountains is intersected by the livers Kistna and Pen^ 

 nar and both appear to pass through gaps or fissures in it, which have 

 been produced by some great convulsion, which at the same time that it 

 formed the beds of these rivers, gave passage to the accumulated waters of 

 gome vast lakes situated near the outlets. 



The tortuous passage of the Kistna for upwards of seventy miles is 

 bounded by lofty and precipitous banks, which in some places rise to 1000 

 feet above its bed ; the opposite sides of the chasm corresponding in an ex- 

 act manner. Ravines of this description are not unfrequent all over the 

 range, and the exact correspondence of their opposite salient and re-enter- 

 ing angles, together with the abruptness of their origin, totally preclude the 

 supposition of their being hollowed out by the action of running water. 



Two of these remarkable chasms occur on the western road to the shrine 

 of Maha Deo at Sri Sailam, and would be totally impassable to travellers, 

 but for the once magnificent causeway and steps, which wind down the 

 precipice, 



* I have reason to believe partly from personal observation, and from specimens obtained from 

 ojfter sources, that the basis of the whole peninsula is of granite, 



I have traced it along the coast of Coromandel lying under laterlte (Buchanan's name for the Iron 

 (3Iay of Jamieson) from Pondicherry to Masnlipatam. 



From Rajahmundry to Nandair in the bed of the Godavery. 



And I have specimens from the base of the Seetabaldi hills, Nagpoor. From Travancore, Tin* 

 jieyelly, Salem and Bellary, 



P % 



