96 



Geological Features 



[NO. 1, NEW SERIES, 



nearly a mile east of the village of Giridimungalum, which, is situ- 

 ated at the quarry of the Oottatoor shell marble, a distance of some 

 five miles north easterly from Oottatoor. 



As we passed from this place to Giridimungalum we saw, to the 

 north of our path and some two or three miles from it, what had 

 the appearance of vast banks and mounds of earth recently thrown 

 up. On visiting them, however, we found them to be high ridges 

 of land, washed into the forms mentioned, by torrents of water si- 

 milar to the location just referred to. Here were found nearly all 

 the different kinds of fossils and minerals that had been found 

 there besides others, such as ammonites of some eight or ten dif- 

 ferent species, some of which though not entire, were more than 

 nine inches in diameter and some entire were about six and seven 

 inches, while others were only three or four inches, and nautili 

 were well preserved and had the syphuncle well developed. While 

 the fossil Crustacea before referred to were here larger and more in 

 the shape of the living animal, some resemble the body of a large 

 lobster, or crab so exactly, that there seems but little risk in call- 

 ing them fossils of that animal ; and some resembled the different 

 kinds of echinus, especially the spatangus. There were also other 

 masses with two lobes somewhat resembling a small saddle having 

 distinct marks of shell or skin. These are only a few of the great 

 variety of forms and shapes that were met with. These were all 

 composed of the oxide of iron, selenite, or zeolite and lime, as be- 

 fore described. Many of these bodies were broken and the oxide 

 of iron, which had formed them, with portions of the fossil animal 

 distinct, lay in different places where they had been entombed. 

 They were of various sizes, from that of the shrimp to that of an 

 animal of some 25 or 30 feet in length. 



We next examined the limestone in the village of Giridimunga- 

 lum ; this appeared to be of different ages ; while some of it, being 

 highly crystalline, must have been of a high antiquity, other parts 

 of it were more recent, imbedding a different kind of shell ; and 

 some appeared to be of the clay above mentioned, and to be, even 

 now, in a state of formation. The shells in the oldest rock, were 

 in the best state of preservation, being much fresher and freer from 



