1840.] Noies^ principally Geological^ on Southern India. 141 



hills. The ranges running to the north are no longer visible, except a 

 few peaks above the western horizon. The formation is much the same 

 as at Peroor, but the micaceous hornblende schist is more abundant. 

 Fragments of schist, felspar, and ferruginous quartz cover the surface. 

 Among the debris I picked up several bits of a ferruginous jasper, and 

 potstone, transUicent, of a faint green, and imbedding plates of mica. 

 Potstone IS said to be dug, not very far off, at a {)lace called Reddor- 

 pilly, in the Durmaveram taluk. A hill of gneis^^, about one and a half 

 mile in a north west direction from the village, is intersected and entang- 

 led in a singular manner, by two basaltic greenstone dykes, or the 

 branches of a very large one having severally an east and an E. N. E. 

 direction. I observed two of the ramifications cutting through beds of 

 the micaceous hornblende schist. The mica and ftlspar of this rock are 

 altered by contact, much in the same manner as granite and gneiss. The 

 gneiss of this hill contains both red and white felspar, and large nests 

 of glittering micaceous hornblende, veined by the red felspar. Por- 

 phyritic veins of this mineral with translucent quartz occur, having 

 crystals of a highly magnetic iron ore disseminated. Some fragments 

 of gneiss have a schistose appearance, from the presence of actynolite 

 or crystallized talc, or both. Talc in its crystallized form imparls a 

 schistose stracture, as before observed : and in its earthy form, it softens 

 the gneiss, gives it a green tint, and a slightly greasy feel. This may 

 be observed in the fragments in the walls of the fort. 



Go/^flA.— Formation same as at Rampur; betw'ecn it and Gollah one 

 or two basaltic dykes are crossed, w^hich, with a single exception, had an 

 easterly course. Natron occurs in the beds of the rivulets, and a 

 quartzy magnetic iron ore is found imbedded in the micaceous hornblende 

 schist : the latter is smelted at Almireddypilly, and at four or five other 

 places in this taluk (Durmaveram). The wrought iron sells at about 

 2 rupees 6 annas the maund of 48 seers, each seer weighing 24 rupees, 



Bellagoopah. -^This place is interesting on account of the great 

 regur plain of Bellary having its commencement some distance to the 

 S. E. of the village. Hitherto it has been seen only in detached 

 patches, generally occupying banks of rivulets, and other low grounds : 

 now it occurs spread out in one vast and almost uninterrupted level 

 sheet, extending in all directions from the edges of the detrital soil, 

 that forms a broad belt at the base of the hills to the westward.* 

 The interruptions of the regur, when they do occur, will be found gene- 

 rally on the summits of the rocky swells, which are covered with a red 



• The jatropJiaglanduliferay 3.10^7 shrubj almost peculiar to the regur, is now more 

 frequently observed. 



