22 



Statistics of the Sii'car Yelgunthul. 



[No. 39, 



cled, or mural summits. In the South, this is brushwood, while 

 North between the third or Podoor range and the Godavery the 

 stunted wood has disappeared and given place to trees, but in no 

 part of the Sircar do these acquire the size of forest trees or 

 dimensions sufficient to yield what is generally understood by the 

 wood timber. 



The rocks of the Sircar belong to the primary, 

 and secondary or transition periods, and for the 

 most part to the first, syenite being the prevailing rock. The 

 range of hills at Gumbeerowpett in the S.W. corner are granitic 

 and composed of felspar, quartz, hornblende, and also mica, but 

 the last in very sparing quantities, the three former components 

 are in equal proportions, fine in grain, and form together a light 

 coloured durable stone. This range does not present that diver- 

 sity of summit so conspicuous in other granite hills ; having a 

 waving outline, with a gradual slope on both sides, that on the 

 South being the most abrupt (23° ) the loose fragments are smaller, 

 than in those granites in which the components are less equal in 

 proportion, and larger in crystal. 



The second or Sircilla range is syenitic, the mica having entirely 

 disappeared, and felspar acquired a great preponderance over the 

 other minerals, existing in crystals of an inch and even two inches 

 in length, of a pale red colour. This range presents an irregular 

 and broken outline, and with it every variety of shape which can 

 be formed by its pyramidal and cuboidal masses ; towards its 

 South Eastern extremity this characteristic is frequently absent, 

 and the dome shape common, and when this happens the crystals 

 are seen to be in more equal proportions, and of a smaller size. 

 This range is much weather-worn, all the angles of its detached 

 masses are rounded, and the surfaces soft, and easily broken, and 

 as a useful stone is much inferior to the Gumbeerowpett range. 

 North of this, but towards the S.E. part of the adjoining plain, 

 solitary hills are numerous of the same general character, the 

 felspar having changed its fleshy to a smoky colour and a few 

 small plates of opaque and yellow coloured mica are to be seen 

 occasionally. 



