98 ' Geological Features 



[NO. 1, NEW SERIES, 



that this kind of limestone appears on and under the surface in the 

 same direction at Virdachellum, Seedraput, and other places be- 

 tween these places, may we not safely conclude that this same for- 

 mation accompanied by its fossils and minerals continues, either 

 beneath, or upon the surface the whole distance from Seedraput to 

 Pullumpardee ? If so, we have a space of more than 100 miles in 

 length and from two to five miles in breadth, which, when this 

 country was submerged beneath the ocean, as was most probably 

 the case in, what is called the cretaceous or latter part of the se- 

 condary epoch, was the peculiar home and feeding ground of in- 

 numerable animals, similar to what the Newfoundland and Bahama 

 banks are now. Here, they lived and flourished and here they 

 died and were buried, and here in the abundance of their fossil 

 remains we read the history of creative wisdom and preserving 

 goodness of which we have such abundant evidence in our day. 



In our return to Trichinopoly we found the country near Ootta- 

 toor covered, in places with the same dark granite before men- 

 tioned, and across the road passed a vein of pure augite slate, so 

 hard and fine grained as to admit of a high polish. At the dis- 

 tance of about three miles south-west from Oottatoor occurred the 

 same undulating denuded surface as at Giridimungalum in which 

 were found nodular concretions of iron ochre imbedding selenite 

 which was very pure ; here was also found chlorite, porphyry and 

 an abundance of crystalline gypsum and a kind of limestone which 

 had the appearance of being simply a mass of fossil hamites, and 

 another kind made up of different species of the shell called tera- 

 bratula, the turbinidce, and many others ; the whole differing en- 

 tirely from any ihing discovered in the other places mentioned. 

 This is an interesting locality and deserves further investigation. 



As the formation on the sea- shore and in the vicinity of the 

 rivers is composed of light sand, and up from the shore, of dilu- 

 vium brought down by the waters, it will require no further re- 

 mark. 



We have now come to the northern part of the Madura District. 

 We find that granite underlies nearly the whole of this District ; 

 there is reason to believe that the laterite rests upon granite, as it 



