Chap. XV.] 
GONDITE SERIES : ORIGIN. 
311 
reference to the map of this area (Plate 43) will show that these 
two deposits occur on one horizon, namely at 
The rocks at BaU- , , 
ghat and ukua. or close to what has been mapped as the base of 
the Chilpis. At Balaghat the manganese-ore body 
consists of alternating layers of manganese-ore and red, black, and 
grey, vitreous quartzites. Underlying the ore-beds, and probably to 
be considered as a portion of the ore-body, is a variable thickness of 
a whitish jaspery quartzite, which often becomes so friable as to powder, 
when quarried, into a fine sand. This rests on a considerable thickness 
of schistose sericitic conglomeratic grits, which form the eastern slopes 
of the ridge on which the ore-band crops out. Overlpng the ore-band 
is a great thickness of phyllites, which are often wrinkled and contorted 
and sometimes sufficiently crystalline to be called mica-schists. Fre- 
quently, on the other hand, they have not passed the slate stage. When 
phyllites, they are best designated sericitic phyllites. To the south- 
west this ore-band disappears beneath alluvium, but probably re-appears 
in Balaghat town in the form of a small outcrop of manganese-ore, 
which I am told occurs there, but which I have not personally seen. 
To the south-west of this, the band again gets hidden, at least for some 
distance. To the north- north- east, however, the band can be traced 
along the ridge until it dies out, first passing into a limonitic rock. Some 
10 miles to the east-north-east this band reappears at what must be 
its wonted horizon, namely the base of the Chilpis as here mapped. From 
this point the ore-band has been traced continuously through Ghondi, 
Gudma, Ukua, and Samnapur. I examined it in the last three village 
areas and made the interesting discovery that the ' country ' of the 
manganese-ores is similar to that of Balaghat, but considerably more 
metamorphosed. The phyllites of Balaghat have here become proper 
crystalline mica-schists, whilst the manganese-ore band contains yellow 
manganese-garnet, developed, no doubt, by interaction between manga- 
nese oxide and interbanded or admixed argillaceous and siliceous 
materials. But the most remarkable feature of all is the rock underlying 
the ore-body. At first sight one calls this without 
converted TnTo'giieiis.* ^^7 hesitation ' gneiss', and the rock seems to 
be an ordinary micaceous gneiss, such as one so 
frequently meets with in the metamorphic and crystalline complex. 
But on careful examination what seem to be pebbles of white quart2( 
