Chap. XXXIX. ] nilgiri hills. 
1039 
Madura District. 
According to the Rev. C. F. Muzzy, whose collections arc fully 
described by Mr. J. H. Nelson l ' manganese abounds on the hills 2,' while 
a specimen from Puda-kudi of ' wood-opal striped with oxide of iron or 
manganese' is mentioned^. Various other minerals containing manganese 
are also enumerated, viz. : — aplome, carpholite^ jeffersonite, and 
arfvedsonite, but it is not stated how or by whom these minerals were 
identified. A less complete list of these collections was given earlier by 
Dr. E. Balfour. * 
Nilgiri Hills- 
Newbold ^ says that manganese-ore ' has been discovered by Colonel 
Cullen and Dr. Benza on the Neilgherries ', and later ^' that it has also 
been found ' in the iron ore near the lake at Ootacamund, and in the 
Kaiti valley '; while the' Gazetteer of Southern India ' 7 states that 
' the black oxide of manganese is found about the hills in many places, 
existing in small veins and retiform deposits'. 
Whilst staying at Ootacamund in October and November 1907 I 
was able to confirm the last statement. The characteristic rocks of 
the Nilgiri Hills are various members of the charnockite series. These 
rocks have been to a very large extent altered at the surface with the 
production of soft variegated lithomarges and other clays. This 
alteration goes down to some depth, in many cases certainly 50 feet 
and probably considerably deeper in places. The alteration is, however, 
very irregular, so that in many places masses of the charnockite rocks 
crop out at the surface, whilst isolated residual boulders of these rocks 
are often found in the clays. At many spots round Ootacamund 
one finds, especially in the cuttings by the roads and foot-paths, and 
on the foot-paths themselves, black veinlets of a soft black 
manganese oxide, best designated wad, traversing the lithomarges, 
in which they often form a perfect network. These veins range in 
1 ' The Madura Country ', pp. 4-16 and 23-42, (1868). 
2/6Mi.,p. 30. 
3 P. 15. 
4 Catalogue of the Government Central Museum, Madras, 1855. 
5 Mad. Jour. Lit. Sci, XI, p. 45, (1840). 
^ Jour. Boy. As. Soc, VIl, ip. 2U, (1843); also see Jour. Roy. As. Soc, VIII, 
p. 234, (1840). 
7 Pharoah and Co., Madras, p. 470, (1855). 
