1836.] the Country between Hyderabad and Nagpur. 215 



situated, the line of bearing of the strata being from S. E. to N. W. 

 The swell of the hill extends some way to the east, but the country is 

 on the whole level. This sandstone is also found to the eastward in 

 the basin of the Wurdah and Godavery, beyond Chanda. 



Sand derived from these rocks forms the soil for two miles north 

 of Won : between that and the Wurdah, it consists of the basaltic 

 black soil, and the gravel of that river is composed of calcedonies, 

 agates, &c. of which a calcareous conglomerate, in horizontal strata, 

 two or three feet thick, has been formed. 



At Waronah, white sandstone and a yellow slate, apparently belong- 

 ing to the clay slate formation to which Voysey refers the blue lime- 

 stone, is used in building ; and one obtained from a hill five miles dis- 

 tant, which I had not time to visit. Most of the pagodas between 

 Hingan ghat and Chanda are built of the same materials. Between 

 "Waronah and Chikneethe country is level, well cultivated, and the 

 water within a few feet of the surface ; much fever prevails after the 

 rains, although there is no wood or marsh. Basalt protrudes from 

 the level soil, and near it, the bed of a small nulla displays strangely 

 altered strata of the red slate clay, seen at Lingtee, which is broken 

 up, and intermixed with crystalline nodules and layers of calcareous 

 spar, having a red clay in the interstices. At Dyegham, two miles 

 further north, and about the same distance south from Chiknee, it is 

 seen dipping to the west of south at a considerable angle, is much 

 fissured, and is reticulated with beautiful veins of calcareous spar, 

 filling up the vertical interstices, which vary from a line to half an 

 inch in breadth ; they intersect each other in all directions without 

 disturbance, and were evidently formed at one time. 



To the east of this, and of the village of Chiknee, there is a very 

 gentle rise of the country, and concentric basalt and great round trap 

 boulders are seen wherever the soil has been removed. On this are 

 found numerous great blocks of indurated clay, of remarkable hard- 

 ness, and exhibiting all the varieties of that mineral, of flinty slate, of 

 compact schist, and of semi-opal*. Many of these masses are also 

 found imbedded in the basalt; and on a very careful examination, the 

 inference could not be avoided, that they owed their different appear- 

 ances to the greater or less heat to which they had been exposed" 

 Most of them are full of large and small univalve shells, many of 

 which are of fresh-water genera. Many of the shells are changed 

 into opal, others are covered, or their shape taken and preserved by 

 quartz crystals ; while the shells of a few can be separated unaltered 

 and effervesce with acids. The spines of the small shells .are often 



* Loose specimens of this rock were seen by Mr. W. Geddes, Surgeon of the Madras 

 European Regiment, in 1829, who directed my attention to ascertain their position. 



