624 
VEINS OF TITANIFEROUS IRON ORE. 
of the Red Hills, Nellore, &c. a marl or 
carbonate of lime is occasionally one of 
the ingredients ; no traces of this carbonate 
are found in the stone of the Neelgherries. 
That this rock of the Neelgherries is to be 
classed with hsematitic iron ore, rather than 
with the true Indian laterite (an overlaying 
rock), is very probable, considering that 
rocks similar in appearance to it are found 
in Europe, while the last is peculiar to 
India. Hitherto no organic remains have 
been found in this rock on the Neelgherries, 
which appears also to have been the case with 
thelaterite ofthe otherparts of the peninsula. 
Under the name of laterite two, or rather 
three, sorts of rocks are included ; to say 
nothing of the common mistake of misap- 
plying the name to the decomposed rocks of 
the primitive class, or to any other that has 
a red, ochreous colour, and softish consist- 
ence. The third species, which abounds all 
along the intervening land, from the foot of 
the western Ghauts to near the sea-shore, 
resembles very much the modified haemati- 
tic iron ore (not the pisiform), being 
cavernous, not tubular, abounding with 
quartz pieces and sand ; having not only 
the cavities lined with powdery felspar, but, 
in the compact portion of the rock, having 
small pieces of the same mineral in the 
compact state. Dr. Benza is not positive 
regarding the existence of manganese on 
these hills. Colonel Cullen says, that it is 
found mixed in the iron ore near the lake. 
Dr. Benza found a straggling piece of this 
ore in the valley of Kaitee, which he has 
not analysed, but which has the external 
characters of one. True granite, composed 
of felspar, quartz, and mica, is not of rare 
occurrence ; it frequently occupies the sum- 
mits of the highest hills : thus it is seen in 
some of the Koondah range, and of the 
Doodabetta group ; Dr. Benza never saw it, 
except in the form of erratic blocks, in the 
low valleys. The sieuitic granite varies in the 
proportion of its component minerals, and 
therefore in appearance ; it sometimes ap- 
proaches diabase (primitive greenstone), and 
at others, granite. It almost always contains 
garnets as one of the minerals composing 
it ; and when this mineral is abundant in 
the rock, the quartz diminishes in proportion. 
In some places, the garnets, instead of be- 
ing either amorphous, or in angular crystal- 
lized pieces, assume the granular form, re- 
sembling colophonite ; in which case, the 
rock containing it assumes a stratified ap- 
pearance, and at others being lamellar, and 
of the dodecahedral species ; in this case, it 
resembles cinnamon-stone, or essonite. 
Descending from the Kaitee pass towards 
the valley, after the second turn of the road 
and not a hundred yards from the huge 
mass which overhangs the road. Dr. Benza 
came upon a thick vein of quartz, intersecting 
it nearly in an east and west direction ; and, 
on examination, he saw that it contained 
numerous veins of titaniferous iron ore. 
The rounded oblong hill, on the sides of 
which the new road is constructed, and 
which is intersected by the vein of titani- 
ferous iron ore, is formed of the granitic rock, 
which prevails in all the eastern range of 
Kaitee ; viz. an unstratified rock, composed 
of four minerals in genei’al, hornblende, 
granite, felspar, and quartz, occasionally, 
in some masses, a few plates of mica. 
The vein of quartz appears to extend 
from the eastern to the western nullahs ; 
and, although protruding in the eastern 
side of the hill, it does not reach so high 
as the surface of the convex summit of the 
hill. Dr. Benza found in the western 
nullah some straggling pieces of the same ore. 
The breadth of this titaniferous vein is 
250 ordinary paces, measured in the cut of 
the road ; and, although evidently unstrati- 
fied, yet, in some of the masses, particularly 
those in which there are many veins of the 
ore, it puts on an appearance of stratifica- 
tion. In general the composition of the 
vein is this — the quartz is granular, and, 
when mixed with a great quantity of the ore, 
becomes friable, crumbly, and full of little 
cavities, the greatest number of which are 
full of an ochreous, or yellowish earth. 
But the same rock, in other parts of the 
vein, assumes a great degree of hardness, 
although having the same appearance as 
the friable one, but with less metal. The 
