114 



Some Account, Historical, Geographical 



[JuLr 



in twenty miles, and no where with a clump of fifty.* The country 

 around Cuddapah, Gurrumcondah, Cummum and Budwail consists of 

 flat lands at the bases of hills, well watered by streams and springs from 

 the neighbouring heights, and studded wiih topes and tanks. In the 

 Chit wail taluk the soil is said to be fertile and water abundant, yet its 

 chief produce is raggi. The country to the west of Bellary is wild and 

 hilly to the verge of the Kumply hills, whence it descends in a gently 

 sloping plain to the bed of the Turnbuddra, its western boundary ; — here 

 it meets with the limits of the Nizam's dominions, the Southern Mahratta 

 Country and Mysore. 



Hills. —The hill ranges most worthy of note are those of the Nulla 

 Mulla &Lanca Mullah to the east, of Sondur and Kumply to the west,and 

 of Gurrumcondah and Punganoor to the south. The former take a S. by 

 easterly course, by Cummum to Cuddapah, whence they turn in a south- 

 easterly direction towards the famous hill-shrine of Tripetty. Their 

 formation is clay slate, sandstone, quartz rock, siliceous and arenaceous 

 schist, wiih a few hills of blue and grey limestone : the base of these 

 rocks is granite. The Sondur and Kumply ranges have a somewhat pa- 

 rallel direction. Granite, laminar granite, granitoidal gneiss, gneiss in 

 distinct strata, hornblende rock, mica, hornblende, chloritic, ferrugi- 

 nous and siliceous schists, prevail. A blue limestone imbedding iron 

 pyrites occupies a large portion of the Cuddapah plain, where it occurs 

 in beds dipping generally at an angle of 5° to the east. Granite occurs 

 in clustered and detached, dome-shaped masses , often crowned with tors 

 and logging stones. The principal clusters are those of Bijanugger in 

 the N. W. frontier — to the S. at Palsamudrum, to the N. at Adoui, and 

 to the S. those of Pennaconda, &c. The greatest elevation attained is 

 by the slate and sandstone formation of the Nullah Mulla, some of whose! 

 peaks rise to about 3,500 feet above the level of the sea. One of the 

 peaks of the schistous ranges, to the west of Bellary, has an elevation! 

 (by trigonometrical measurement.) of 3,148 feet. 



Valleys. — There are no valleys that I can satisfy myself have been! 

 entirely caused by the erosive action of water, but there are many rifts 

 in the sandstone and slate hills, that have been deepened and widened 

 from this cause. In the same hills we see ravines and cul de-sac hol- 

 lows, which have evidently been formed by the water rushing down to 

 the plains during the rains. Deep vertical fissures cross the sandstone 



* Since his time the late collector Mr. Robertson has*done much to improve the 

 appt-aiance of the •juntry by the plant ation of numerous topes. 



