IN SOUTHERN IN 1)1 A. 



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by practical miners ; they lie beyond the sphere of the geolo- 

 gist, whose duty it was to trace out and map the extent and 

 position of the demantiferous rock. The Banaganpilly beds 

 was certainly an important source, even if not the only one, 

 whence were derived the demantiferous gravels of the Penned, 

 Tungabhadra, and Kistna valleys, and most likely also of 

 other stray patches of gravel which are to be met with here 

 and there resting on the older rocks. The workings at 

 Wadjrar Karur in Bellary District, 20 miles S.W. from Grooty, 

 are believed to be in such a patch of gravel of Karnul origin. 13 

 The immense denudation undergone by the Banaganpilly beds 

 alone, as shown by the wide separation of their various 

 outliers, is more than enough to account for much more 

 extensive gravel beds than those referred to above. 



The diamond workings of the Palnad and those further 

 east along the north bank of the Kistna are of two classes — 

 mines (pits) and alluvial washings. Of the latter nothing 

 more need be said here, but the former demand some remarks. 

 Those with which the writer is personally acquainted mostly 

 lie close to the Kistna river, but none were being worked at 

 the time of his visits. Those occurring at Oostapully, oppo- 

 site Chintapilly, seemed to have been but lately abandoned, 

 but no information could be procured about them. In the 

 long spur of ground which runs up north from Chintapilly 

 towards Jaggiapetta, and round which the Kistna makes a 

 very remarkable loop, are numerous bands of grit or conglo- 

 meratic sandstone passing locally into true quartzites which 

 have in former times been extensively searched (presumably 

 for diamonds), for their surfaces over large areas are closely 

 honeycombed with shallow pits, so closely in parts as to 



13 "Wadjrar Karur has not been examined by the officers of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey, as it lies a considerable distance beyond the ground they were 

 engaged upon. The writer for one was not aware of its being a diamond- 

 yielding locality till after he had left that part of the world. 



