1836.] the Country between Hyderabad and Ndgpur, 2il 



plain of Urj una, the blue limestone disappears, and the hill is found 

 to be composed of the usual black concentric basalt, the nuclei of which 

 are exceedingly hard, and contain much olivine : they are imbedded in 

 a soft grey or greenish wacken. I was surprised to find the road and 

 a ravine descending from the hill strewed with the limestone I had left 

 below, and did not quite credit the guide, who pointed to the top of 

 the hill as the locality from which they came. I, however, soon came 

 to it in situ, in its characteristic large smooth slabs, which render it so 

 difficult to pass on horseback. They were observed to be slightly 

 convex upwards, to be very much fissured in various directions, and if 

 taken in the mass, to have a slight anticlinal dip, although on the top 

 the slabs were horizontal and several places remarkably altered, as 

 if they had been half fused,* the argillaceous and silicious matters hav* 

 ing arranged themselves into beautiful streaks of a pale blue enamel, 

 passing into calcedony, or crystallized in minute prisms. Some parts 

 of these strata had acquired a deep black colour, and a flinty hardness. 

 On descending the hill on the opposite side, the same appearances 

 presented themselves, and left no doubt of the limestone having been 

 raised from its connections by the intrusion of the basalt, which had 

 slightly bent the strata, and in doing so, had caused the numerous fis- 

 sures, and the alteration of structure. North of the Pindee ghat, 

 there are a number of very low rising grounds, flat on the top, and 

 composed of black globular trap rocks : and on the valleys, many large 

 coarse masses of caleedony are scattered ; of which, on a, slight 

 examination, I saw none in the hills. Near this, limestone was 

 found in the bed of a nulla. A little further on, there are two 

 very black conical hills of trap, and at their feet, great fragments of 

 rock crystal, but of no beauty, and having cavities lined with calce- 

 dony. From hence to Kair, the country is more level, rising however 

 a little, to the right of the road; and four miles from the Pindee 

 ghat, and the same distance from Kair, I found sandstone. It was'only 

 seen in a small nulla where its strata appeared to be horizontal, and was 

 white, red, or of a fine yellow, easily decomposed, and having small 

 metallic veins passing through its substance, and in one or two places, 

 passed into a breccia cemented by lime. No other rock is found at a 

 higher level. I had been induced to examine this extensive slope, as 

 the occurrence of the blue limestone suggested the probability of a 

 sandstone or breccia being found above it, as in Cuddapah, before I 

 discovered the sandstone at Urjuna, and near Eidlabad ; I was there* 

 fore much gratified by finding it, although different in mineralogicai 

 characters. The country did not afford any section, but the sandstone 

 probably rests on the blue limestone, which is met with at a lower level, 

 two miles to the north-east. A mile and a half south of Kair*, the 



* This small tewn must not be confounded with a large place of the same name on the 

 Godavery. 



