BY W. KING, ESQ, 



71 



wa} T , that all the water sinks down rapidly, until it is caught 

 up by the quartzite intercalations in the slates, or by the 

 quartzite series below ; and this last may also be a reason for 

 the fertility of the quartzite area, as most of these rocks 

 would fetch the water up to their outcrop by mean s of their 

 undulations. 



Regarding the diamonds and the lead of which we 

 occasionally hear as occurring in this part of the Kurnool 

 District, there is not much to be said. A peculiar band 

 ofsilicified and calcareous rocks is interbedded with the 

 clay-slate series, and it is in these that traces of lead and 

 copper have been found. There are, or were, two mining 

 regions in the mountains ; one in the Kuddapah District., 

 the other near Busswapoor in Kurnool. The first certainly 

 seems to have been the best and most extensive ; but in 

 both cases I believe they have been thoroughly worked out 

 by the old Native rulers of the country. Mr. Wall, the late 

 Government Mining Engineer, has written papers on the 

 mines in this Journal ; and the results of his examinations 

 may be taken as a close approximation to the condition 

 and prospects of these metalliferous regions. 



The diamond-mines also used to be near Busswapoor; 

 but they have been long deserted, and are now grown over 

 with bamboo jungle. They generally consisted of alluvial 

 washings. The gravel and sand of an alluvial deposit which 

 filled up a small valley to the east of Busswapoor used to 

 be dug up out of pits and washed and examined for the 

 precious jems, pretty much in the same way as the diamonds 

 were worked in, the village of Chenoor, a few miles north 

 of Kuddapah, in the neighbourhood of which, by the way, 

 it is said that the famous Golcondah* mines were situated. 



To the east of Busswapoor traces are still left of the 



* There are no diamonds found at Golcondah near Hyderabad- 



