330 Mr. B. Babington’s Remarks on the Geology 
places quartz is intermixed with mica. The mountains formed by 
this rock, and which line the western side of India, are not of very 
rugged outline ; on the contrary, they are in general wooded to the 
top : they are very high. Bannason hill, which is among the 
highest, is said to be 7000 feet above the sea. This rock is every 
where in strata highly inclined, almost vertical. It has in some 
places more quartz, in some more felspar, in some more horn- 
blende ; thus varying in colour, and aggregating in streaks. Further 
on, between Peria and Manantoddy, it contains much precious 
garnet, and is exceedingly tough. In its decay it becomes of an 
ochry red. Near Manantoddy, there is no fresh exposition of rock : 
there is indeed a quarry of laterite, about a quarter of a mile from 
the hill, on the old Madras road. It is worked close to the surface, 
and the workmen seem never to cut down beyond the depth of a 
few feet. The instrument used is an axe, for the rock is of a con- 
sistence between stone and clay when fresh. This axe is of the 
annexed shape. 
Perhaps two points of contact are less apt to break the stone than 
one. When the workman has chopped away at the four sides and 
made the stone flat at the top, he makes a cut or two horizontally 
underneath, and the mass immediately splits in that direction. The 
stage from Manantoddy to Bavally Nulla is very hilly, but the hills 
are never steep ; their composition, however, changes from the 
greenstone above mentioned, to a rock of a small wavy texture, 
which appears to be chlorite slate. There are also fragments of a 
