406 



Report 071 the Goomsur, DuspuUah 



regular, ranging generally between 60" find 80° above the ghauts, the. 

 strata are inclined at every possible angle, and towards every point of 

 the compass. 



The outline of the conical and pyramidal hills^ and hog-backed 

 ridges, which result from the association of these rocks, is, generally, 

 broken with slight asperities, rarely continuoujily rugged. The naked 

 rock is seldom exposed, save in the sharpest summits of the hills, in 

 occasional bald domes,, and in the water courses. 



The ditFerence between the angles of superficial inclination assumed 

 by these rocks in disintegration is sufficiently striking. 



The lower portion of a hillj formed of gneiss, rises at an angle 

 between 15<^and25o; Its upper portion^ composed of sandstone, is 

 inclined at about 40 \ 



The soil produced by these rocks necessarily bears every variety of 

 character. It is in many tracts light and sandy, but from the propor- 

 tion of felspar contained in both formations, and the large admixture 

 of vegetable matter it is often also rich and loamy. 



The strictly geological connections and mineral details of these 

 formations will be investigated in another section, of this report. 



It may in the mean time be observed of the sand stone that certain 

 phenomena of apparent gradual transition into gneiss ; its conformabi- 

 lity to this rock, and the entire absence of conglomerates in these 

 tracts, tend to rank it among the primary rocks ; while on the other 

 hand the existence of a tract of sandstone apparently secondary over 

 the granitic gneiss the eastern extremity of the valley near 

 Ganjam ; the character of the rocks of Cuttack ; and the apparent con- 

 nection of this deposit with that containing argillaceous iron stone be- 

 j^ond the Mahanuddy, would assign it a place as an old red sand stone. 

 I had no opportunity of observing the passage of veins from either side.. 



Two lines of Route surveyed,— In the chain of valleys which skirts, 

 and transects the spinal ridge of the ghauts, runs the easterly route 

 surveyed from Gullery to Boad. 



The second line of survey rises to t|ie plateau from near Korady- 

 cottah, at the northern extremity of the great depression. It proceeds, 

 to the western verge of the table-land in Ruttabarri, returning by a 

 south-easterly course to Courmingia on its opposite brink. 



A brief notice of the country traversed in each of these lines, will 

 permit reference to the remaining points of superficial topography 

 ?,^pro]^riate to this report. 



