188 



Statistical Report on the Northern and [No. 38 ? 



and used by them, and also by the manufacturers of glass ; in some 

 parts this admixture of salt bears a large proportion of the sand 

 when it is mined, and rudely separated from it. Limestone for 

 the purpose of mortar is every where met with, it is sometimes 

 very hard, witli the appearance of having been in a state of fusion 

 at other times it is nearly as soft and friable as marl, and well 

 adapted for the use to which it is applied, the decomposed granite 

 forming a plastic mud is well adapted for building huts, the frail 

 walls of which bear more vexing from climate than woidd at first 

 sight be conceived ; it is burnt into bricks, when ochreous it is 

 used for painting the walls of houses, and furnishes materials for 

 the potter's wheels. The felspathic clay often of a brilliant white 

 colour would doubtless be good material for the finer kinds of por- 

 celain, but it is never used by the Telinghee Coomars. 



Lithomarge and Lithomargic earth is found in the sandstone 

 and schorl, and black tourmaline in the granite, but neither are 

 turned to use or ornament. Granite is very rarely used for house 

 building, but the walls of all the old and strong forts are construct- 

 ed of it, and from the appearance of some rocks it is clear that 

 they have been operated on for this purpose to a great extent. 

 Captain Newbold, in the Madras Journal of Literature, has explain- 

 ed how these blocks were separated. The sandstone is more used 

 for house building, but so plentiful is the timber in the country 

 where it forms the surface rock, that the greater number of th© 

 houses there are constructed of bamboo and wood. 



Vegetable Substances. 



These may be conveniently divided into spontaneous and cul- 

 tivated, and first of the forest trees, which afford serviceable tim- 

 ber. The Tectona granclis, or the teak tree, grows in many parts 

 of the country, but, owing to its uniformly stunted growth in the 

 grantic country, it is nearly valueless, being used only for the rude 

 agricultural implements of the Coonbees. On the sandstone it 

 grows to be a large tree, and tradition points to a period when 

 valuable teak timber was in existence south of the Godavery 

 where now owing to the carelessness and indifference of the Go- 

 vernment in preserving its forests, it no longer exists, nor indeed 

 does valuable teak at present grow in any part of the Hydrabad 

 territory ; what is commonly known by the name of Godavery teak 



