1839] 



some other portions of Mysore. 



93 



somewhat resembling kimkar. In a valley immediately below, there 

 was much kunkar, and a calcareous and clayey soil prevailed for some 

 miles before reaching this place. Near Periapatam, which is not far 

 distant from Coorg, other veins of the same kind were observed, which 

 first directed my attention to the mode in which the far famed black 

 soil of India may be formed. Are these veins from the decomposition 

 of calcareous spar, which we know occurs frequently in hornblende 

 slate ? Wherever I have found much kunkar I have remarked that very 

 few rocks elevated themselves above the surface, most likely all of them 

 having undergone decomposition, and the ground has generally looked 

 as if it had once been much under water. I think also that the formation 

 has existed generally in a hornblende neighbourhood— an analysis of 

 hornblende shows that much lime enters into its composition, and per- 

 haps an analysis of hornblende ro ks in India might shov/ a larger pro- 

 portion than even what is m^t with in'Europe. In districts, then, v^"here 

 this ancient kunkar exists, or where limestone aboun'ls, we are able to 

 account for the modern formation, as the calcareous material is afforded, 

 which water takes up and ag lin deposits ; but in these localities, Vvhere 

 neither ancient kunkar nor limestone is to be found, the only mode of 

 accounting for it, is by taking into consideration the calcareous veins 

 in the decomposing rocks, as seen in the section above mentioned, or 

 allowing far the decomposition of hornblende and granite rocks, con- 

 taining carbonate of lime. The celebrated Voysey, in his second Re- 

 port on the Geology of Hyderabad, says of the granite " in several 

 places I have found carbonate of lime a constituent, the quantity very 

 small and only to be detected by effervescence in acids, and a tufaceous 

 limestone is found through the granite in nests and beds."— He again 

 alludes to it as " veins of an earthy carbonate of lime." 



Kunkar of an ancient formation has just been described, and one of its 

 localities in Mysore mentioned ; but there is another kind found in nodu- 

 les a few feet below the soil, not in large masses or forming a conglomerate 

 or a breccia. I have found it connected with a black soil, and much horn- 

 blende on the surface in small decomposed pieces. These nodules are 

 carried away in baskets to the kilns, and when burnt afford chunam or 

 lime for architectural purposes. I believe it is not considered a very 

 fine kind. The modern formation of kunkar is common, and is found 

 either in small pieces, the size of marbles, strewed over the ground, and 

 sometimes along with an impure carbonate of soda or muriate of soda, 

 or in larger pieces several feet below ground, accomoanied with much 

 clay — one locality of this last, about S miles from Bangalore, at Mada- 

 pullay, on the Madras side of Kistnarajaporum, I may here describe. 



