1837.] 



through the Northern Circars. 



47 



a deep nullah, where are many masses of quartz-rock, which must have 

 been brought from the distant high hills to the north, and accumulated 

 there for the purpose of building a bridge ; the few projecting rocks are 

 the usual gametic gneiss, often decomposing, the garnets assuming a 

 cancelated structure (No. 6). 



This gneiss, like all primitive Indian rocks, whether stratified, or mas- 

 sive, contains immense beds, or veins, of quartz. When the other mine- 

 rals decompose and are removed, the quartz must protrude, and, depriv- 

 ed of support, split into fissures, the pieces being scattered in the plain ; 

 or, if the rock be in the declivity of a hill, it is hurled down into the ra- 

 vines and valleys. In one place, to the right of the road, there is a little 

 elevation of sandstone, with a few blocks projecting at the summit (No. 

 7) which sometimes assume the conglomerate structure, resembling clay 

 prophyry (No. 8), or conglomerate sandstone (No. 9) ; over the whole 

 plain, pebbles of quartz and of sandstone are very abundant. 



Appoorapet, Jan. 24. — The Right Honourable the Governor having 

 resolved to stay here for the remainder of this, and all the following day, 

 I did not miss the opportunity of examining the diamond mines, which 

 the Honourable Mr. Russell informed me were only six miles north of 

 this place. 



Having made my arrangements for the journey, a tent accompanying 

 me, I started at 5 o'clock next morning in a palanquin. After about 

 three miles having traversed a plain of some extent, near the village of 

 Shingoonoosoondum, the guide, who had assured me, with an oath, that 

 he knew then place, began to talk with every person he met, sotto voce ; 

 which led me to suspect he was ignorant of the place we were going to. 

 Fortunately, meeting a man who understood Hindostanee, and having 

 the memorandum, with which Mr. Russell kindly provided me, of the 

 name of the village close to the mines, I asked for Mullavelly, and 

 immediately the man pointed out a tuft of lofty trees, in the middle 

 of which were seen the huts of the village, I was in search of. He took 

 me, at my request, to the headman of the village who conducted me to 

 the pits, answering, with a captivating affability, all the questions I put 

 to him in our way to the excavations. 



The road from Appoorapet to Mullavelly, lies along a sandy plain, 

 which, 1 am told, is swampy during the heavy rains. Approaching the 

 last mentioned village the plain is bestrewed.with blocks and fragments 

 of a very hard conglomerate sandstone, some pieces being of a 

 purplish colour (No. 13). There are also some large blocks of gametic 

 gneiss, in a state of decomposition (No. 14). But the red sandstone 

 abounds most, although rolled pieces of quartz, with a covering of a 

 ferruginous clay, or carbonate of iron, together with the conglomerate 

 sandstone, are scattered over the plain. 



