146 



Descnptioit of the Valley of Sondur, [July 



A sassanam, in the Hala Canarese character, is iriscribed in the en- 

 closure before the temple, of whose, endowment it bears testimony. It 

 is dated in the year Parihiva and of Sahvahana 641. The grant was 

 made by a king of the Marale dynasty named Bijahi Naicanu. 



Geology.— "The general direction and features of the Sondur range 

 have been already touched upon. The prevailing rock met with is a 

 chloritic slate, resembling the greenish Ginuwacke slate of Britain, 

 often highly impregnated Vi'wh oxide of iron, and crested in many- 

 places with mural ridges of a ferruginous quartz rock, embracing a 

 variety of colours from steel grey to a deep liver brown, and of different 

 degrees of compactness. This rock often forms whole hills — always 

 however lying above the slate. The most striking geological feature 

 that fell under my observation was a fissure, at nearly right angles with 

 the line of direction, running through both ranges, and forming the 

 eastern a nd western passes into the valley, along the bottom of which 

 runs a small stream to the N. E. marking the line of depression. As 

 this fissure presents also the best section of the surrounding formation 

 I shall attempt its description, commencing from the eastern outlet at 

 Yettenhuity. 



JBimagundi or Eastern Pass. — The pass is here of considerable width 

 and the sides sloping and wooded : a little farther on, as they approach 

 nearer the sides, they become steeper and the bottom of the passes en- 

 cumbered with precipitated masses of the cresting rock. About the 

 middle of the pass, intersecting it at right angles, are two singular look- 

 ing rocks, nearly insulated from the chain, presenting precipitous 

 faces in the line of the stream which runs between them. They ap- 

 pear at first sight to form a complete barrier across the pass. Their 

 bases are about forty paces asunder : deep and nearly vertical fis- 

 sures, in a line nearly corresponding with that of elevation, cleave the 

 rocks on both sides of the stream. A bed of rock, harder than' that 

 which surrounds it, which has been worn away, is left projecting like 

 an abutment from the face of the northern precipice, at the foot of 

 which is a short talus of masses precipitated from the higher parts of 

 the rock : these appear to have given way like the upper portions of 

 sea worn cliffs from the abrasion of the lower and supporting rock. I 

 examined carefully the sides of the precipices, which, being of one ho- 

 mogeneous rock, exhibit no marks of dislocation : about fifty feet above 

 the bed of the stream, on a ledge of the southern rock, I picked up se- 

 veral water-worn pebbles \ among them one or two of the chloritic 



