1836.] 



the Country between Hyderabad and Ndgpur. 



197 



of that to the south, do not support the opinion that the lake was 

 drained by the river deepening its channel. I do not know whether 

 it can be supposed to derive any support from a tale told of the river 

 god (Krishna) having induced the patron of the hill, who seems to be 

 a form ofSkiva, to permit him to get his head through, and that then 

 he forced a passage. The granitic hills of Condapilly are seen a few 

 miles to the N. W. ; and in the midst of the plain, rising out of 

 it like an island, are some great masses of hornblende rock ; and 

 Dr. Benza informs me that he saw dykes of the same kind of green- 

 stone passing through the gneiss at Bezwarab. A mile and a half 

 further on the road to Hyderabad is a quarry of granitic rock, devoid 

 of hornblende, and containing only a very little felspar and a few scat* 

 tered garnets. A little beyond this, the rocks assume the decided cha- 

 racters of the great granite formation of the Deccan, with which Dr. 

 Yoysey's papers have made your readers acquainted. The geological 

 structure of the Circars is in nothing so peculiar, as in the extensive 

 distribution of the singular sandstone-like gneiss described by Heyne? 

 and which, in hand specimens, it is often impossible to distinguish 

 from the sandstone also found in many localities : and I do not know 

 a more interesting subject of inquiry, than that of ascertaining whe- 

 ther this singular rock is metamorphic, and the sandstone altered by 

 the intrusion of the great masses of prophyry so commonly found 

 near these equivocal rocks, and by the numerous greenstone dykes and 

 masses scattered over the whole of these districts. The diamond mines 

 of Mulavelly are at no great distance from Condapilly, to the right of 

 the road, situated in a basin between hills covered with jungle. The 

 sides of which, one-third from the top, were found by Dr. W. David- 

 son to be strewed with a sandstone conglomerate ; but he was pre- 

 vented getting to the top by the approach of night. Fragments of 

 this are found in the gravel, of which I believe specimens have already 

 been sent to the Society, intermixed with much kankar ; and from 

 some pits in the valley, most of the lime used in the district is pro- 

 cured. The soil of the country on the Hyderabad Military road, after 

 leaving the alluvial plain above Bezwarah, is formed of decomposed 

 granite, but contains much lime. This admixture, and the kankar 

 nodules are probably of recent origin ; as I observed, in a valley to the 

 right of the road north of the hill fort of Yeralagundah, about 18 miles 

 from Bezwarah, a stream trickling over granite rocks, and depositing 

 lime on all the branches and rocks around. Some pieces of stone of 

 considerable size have thus been formed, and recent specimens, con- 

 taining remains of branches, or of grass, easily crumble to pieces, and 

 are carried away' by the stream. The source of the spring I was pre- 

 vented from ascertaining, by the approach of night ; and as an excuse 

 for leaving this and other interesting circumstances unexplored, I 



