1836.] 



Neelglierries and Koondahs. 



287 



tite, and a few basaltic dykes, constitute the catalogue of the surface 

 rocks in all localities. 



To Makoortee.—Ahout five miles W. N. W. from Ootacamund, there 

 is a high conical hill, surmounted by four kairns. The road to Ma- 

 koortee passes about three miles S.W of this hill, called Pinnapool hill, 

 on account of a small Todar village of that name half way up. On the 

 road to Makoortee, opposite this hill, is a thick bed of magnetic iron 

 ore, forming part of the hill to the left (No. 153). It is stratified, and 

 resembles the vein at the western end of the lake, the quartz being 

 in strata and granular, alternating conformably with those containing 

 the metal. 



Proceeding farther west, the masses jutting above the soil are horn- 

 blende slate or sienitic granite (No. 154), both rocks having in some 

 places basaltic dykes through them, whether loose or implanted in the 

 ground (No. 155). . Leaving this place hornblende slate is the prevail- 

 ing rock, in which the hornblende is of the large laminar species, with 

 very little felspar (No. 158). *About half way between the canton- 

 ment and Makoortee, in a valley along which the road passes, 

 is a bed of the usual quartz iron ore, similar to that of Pinnapool, but 

 not magnetic (No. 157). A few miles farther west we come to a 

 Toda Mund, half a mile west of which, we ford one of the tributary 

 branches of the Pykara, all the masses in its bed being hornblende 

 slate abounding with nests of the same mineral (No. 158). After ford- 

 ing the river, the high hill opposite, in a line with the peak of Ma- 

 koortee, is formed of hornblende slate which passes into sienitic gra- 

 nite (No. 159). This last rock, when decomposed, seen at a distance, 

 js like the lateritic iron ore (No. 160), but not cavernous. 



The nearer we go to Makoortee, the clearer the stratification of the 

 rock is seen, and the greater and the deeper the decomposition, so as 

 to display the small but still crystalline nucleus, surrounded by dozens 

 of concentric layers of the decomposed rock. About a mile before 

 reaching the place where the tents were pitched, that is at the foot of 

 the mountain on the summit of which is the peak, we see a bank, per- 

 haps ten or twelve feet high, composed entirely of decomposed horn- 

 blende slate, the remaining nucleus of many of the masses remaining in 

 situ, crystalline as before, but buried in the numerous concentric layers 

 of their own decomposed substance (No. 161 shews both the nucleus 

 and the decomposed rock). All the masses in the bed of the principal 

 branch of the Pykara, both fixed and loose, are hornblende slate (No. 

 162). I arrived at Makoortee quite fatigued ; as from an error in the 

 map, I was misled and kept on horseback from 5 o'clock in the morning 

 to the same hour in the evening. 



Mr. Yiveash, who had been here two days before, informed me of 



