BY W. KING, ESQ. 



105 



which they have been altered or metamorphosed. The first 

 is exhibited splendidly in the low cliffy banks, where the 

 beds are lying in horizontal steps, or in great curves which 

 rise up from under the hill sides. Denudation is seen, not 

 only in the effects of the old action of the present river, but 

 in more ancient stream-beds, now filled up by a con- 

 glomerate of the coarsest and most varied constitution, 

 which has since been itself again scoured out for the chan- 

 nels existing at the present day. This conglomeratic sand- 

 stone has been metamorphosed into a beautiful quartzite and 

 jaspideous rock of most opposite colors, owing to the number 

 and variety of its constituent pebbles and shingle ; rendering 

 the now polished bed of the river a splendid natural mosaic, 

 or a rougher concrete, of a general red color, marbled with 

 pinks, greens, greys, and browns, quite astonishing to behold. 

 Further up the river, nearer the Droog, there are other 

 varieties of rocks rising up from underneath the quartzites 

 already walked over, such as sheets of igneous rock (trap) 

 and volcanic ashes ; which not only give interest to the 

 geologist's study of this part of the Kistnah, but bring about 

 some slight changes in the scenery and physical aspect of 

 the country. 



The hill country to the north of the Kistnah, for the 

 length of river I traversed, appears to be but thinly covered 

 wiih jungle, except in the ravines. Further investigation 

 will tell us more of the country to the eastward of this ; but, 

 from all I can learn, the Mantyconda forest basin is, so far, 

 the richest area on the mountains. Next to this, the broad 

 valleys of the Nundial and the old Koodrar tank streams 

 are fine dry forest lands ; nor should I forget the valley on 

 the western side of the Nundy Cunnama (the trunk road 

 across the mountains), which is connected by its forests 

 with the two valleys just mentioned. 



Here we finished our rapid run over the Nullamullays, 



