1850.] 



Sircar of Pytun. 



237 



deep alluvial beds, the decomposed portions of the harder rocks 

 which the streams have there deposited ; the rocks they lie su- 

 perposed on, are of a purplish grey colour, partaking of an amyg- 

 daloidal, as well as porphyritic character and form the beds of 

 ^. . . the large rivers and streams. The Sircar may there- 



fore be arranged under three divisions, all possess- 

 ing properties peculiar to themselves. The first will comprehend 

 the hilly tracts, where we find a strong aluminous black soil cap- 

 ping the summits, or a stony and unproductive surface running 

 ■ along the bases, much broken by nullahs, as well as being rendered 

 further unprofitable, by the constant occurrence of broad rocky 

 ledges, on whose surface, soil, if any, does not extend to a greater 

 depth than an inch or two. The second takes in the middle por- 

 tions of the district, which are undulating, and much intersected by 

 water courses ; here, insulated patches of black soil occasionally oc- 

 cur, generally found resting on calcareous beds or soft wacke with 

 imbedded globular. Basalt; being boggy and unproductive, or fer- 

 tile, according to the nature of the substratum : the soils are very 

 varying in quality ; sometimes rich and marly, and at others kunke- 

 ry and light, so that they are hardly worth the trouble of cultivat- 

 ing. 



Lastly the tracts along the margin of the river Gunda, and Goda- 

 very, where the alluvial deposits washed down from the higher lands, 

 form beds of great depth and fertility. The silicious clay and de- 

 composed ferruginous clay stone rocks produce a very rich soil, pos- 

 sessing a degree of compactness, which whilst not being too stiff in 

 its nature, is devoid of those yawning clefts and fissures, so common 

 in soils where this character is an excess. It is indeed a soil equal- 

 ly adapted for rubbee, as khureef crops, and also offering excellent 

 localities for irrigation. On the high banks of the Godavery, east 

 of the city of Pytun, are valuable, yellow clay beds, the sources from 

 whence they are derived being the destroyed felspar of the trap 

 rocks. 



The leading features of the province, are plains 

 Aspect. BW elling out into gentle undulations, and sloping very 

 considerably from a higher barrier of mountains on its northern, con- 

 fines, towards the basin of the Godavery skirting the southern limits ; 

 these plains are remarkably denuded of trees, which are only to be 

 seen of any size in scattered clumps, noting sites of villages, but 



