1337.] 



through the Northern Circars. 



45 



Among the sculptures at Masulipatam there was a piece, apparently 

 part of the entablature of an architrave, which was really in a very 

 refined style ; there were figures of lions, tigers, rhinoceroses, buffaloes 

 and men, executed with so much taste, and so exquisitely correct, as 

 to call forth the admiration of all who saw it. 



This, and many others of the sculptures attracted the Right Honour- 

 able the Governor's attention, who on the spot gave orders for their 

 transmission to a safer, cleaner and more conspicuous place.* 



The limestone of these slabs is stratified, and has great similarity to 

 that used for lithographic purposes (No. 1)— colour, yellowish gray — 

 fracture, splintery and dull, occasionally glimmering — semi-transparent 

 at the edges ; in short, it resembles magnesian, or some species of the 

 alpine, limestone. I was told that it is quarried on the banks of the 

 Kistna river, near Chindapilly. 



Goodoor, January 19. — The subtratum to the alluvial sand, in the 

 plain between Masulipatam and this place, is blackish clay (No. 2), con- 

 taining some fresh water shells, such as ampullaria, planorbis, &c. 

 (No. 3). Just before reaching Poomroo the sandy alluvium is succeed- 

 ed by the black cotton soil, in which I found also ampullarioe and 

 planorbis. 



Weeyoor, Jan. 21. — Cultivation of all sorts of grains appears to 

 prosper in the environs' of Whehoor, and the black soil prevails, in 

 which are found, even at one or two feet depth, under the surface, fresh 

 water shells, of species now existing in tanks. 



Bezoara, Jan. 22. — All the plain between Whehoor and this place 

 has the usual uninteresting, monotonous appearance of the plains of 

 India; but close to the village of Pattamotta, not three miles from 

 Bezoara, we were relieved from this dispiriting sameness, by the 

 sight of elevated land and hills. The knoll, at the foot of which 

 the village stands, is hardly 40 feet above the plain ; and another 

 near it has somewhat less elevation. Both are formed of a varie- 

 ty of gneiss, which contains garnets instead of mica ; although, in 

 some blocks we see this last mineral not only added to the other 

 three, but sometimes predominating over them (No. 4). We shall 

 see, hereafter, that, in the whole province, this is the predominant 

 rock ; the quartz of which has a gray colour, the felspar white, 

 with the appearance and nature of albite ; the garnets, generally 

 amorphous, but occasionally crystalline, and of the common colour. 



* They have not yet reached their destination, the Museum of the Literary Society, 



