96 
Geological Features 
[no. 1, NEW SERIES, 
nearly a mile east of the village of Giridimungalum, which is situ- 
ated at the quarry of the Oottatoor shell marble, a distance of some 
fire miles north easterly from Oottatoor. 
As we passed from this place to Giridimungalum we saw, to the 
north of cur path and some two or three miles from it, what had 
the appearance of vast banks and mounds of earth recently thrown 
up. On -visiting them, however, we found them to be high ridges 
of land, washed into the forms mentioned, by torrents of water si- 
milar to the location just referred to. Here were found nearly all 
the different kinds of fossils and minerals that had been found 
there besides others, such as ammonites of some eight or ten dif- 
ferent species, some of which though not' entire, were more than 
nine inches in diameter and some entire were about six and seven 
inches, while others were only three or four inches, and nautili 
were well preserved and had the syphuncle well developed. "\IMiile 
the fossil Crustacea before referred to were here larger and more in 
the shape of the living animal, some resemble the tody of a large 
lobster, or crab so exactly, that there seems but little risk in call- 
ins: them fossils of that animal ; and some resembled the diflferent 
kinds of echinus, especially the spatangus. There were also other 
masses witb two lobes somewhat resembling a small saddle having 
distinct marks of shell or skin. These are only a few of the great 
variety of forms and shapes that were met with. These were all 
composed of the oxide of iron, selenite, or zeolite and lime, as be- 
fore described. Many of these bodies were broken and the oxide 
of iron, which had formed them, with portions of the fossil animal 
distinct, lay in different places where they had been entombed. 
They were of various sizes, from that of the shrimp to that of an 
animal of some 25 or 30 feet in length. 
We next examined the limestone in the village of Giridimunga- 
lum ; this appeared to be of different ages ; while some of it, being 
highly crystalline, must have been of a high antiquity, other parts 
of it were more recent, imbedding a different kind of shell : and 
some appeared to be of the clay above mentioned, and to be, even 
now, in a state of formation. The shells in the oldest rock, were 
in the best state of preservation, being much fresher and freer from 
I 
