RECORDS 
OF TJTE 
GEOLOGICAL SU1IVEY OF INDIA. 
Part 4.] 
1874 . 
[November. 
The Auriferous Rocks of the Dambal Hills, Dharwar District, by R. B. Foote, 
F. G. S., Geological Survey of India. 
It had long been known that the sands of various streams taking their rise in the 
Dambal Hills contain gold; but the sources from which this stream-gold was derived were 
not positively determined, and it was with the object of settling this point that I was 
officially deputed to visit the hills in question at the close of last field-season. 
The results of my examination of that region show that one source of the gold is to be 
found in at least one auriferous quartz reef, which will be described further on. 
Stream-gold is known to occur also in several other places in Dharwar and Bclgaum 
Districts, but, as far as I could ascertain, in very much smaller quantities. One locality in 
the Kuladgee District is doubtfully reported as auriferous. These occurrences will be again 
referred to. 
The Dambal Hills are situated in the Gudduek Talook, some miles south-south-east of 
... ... the town of Gudduek, and are locally known as the Kap- 
Geographical position. , , , . " , , „ , 
patgode, being so called after the temple sacred to Kappat 
Iswara, which stands on the western flank of the main hill, in long. 75° 45' east, and lat. 
15° 13' north. They form the northern part of a belt of elevated ground extending in a 
single or double ridge north-north-west from Harpunliully, in Bellary District, across the 
Toongabadra to Bingud Kuttee, 3 miles west of Gudduek, where the ridge sinks into the 
great, black, regur-covered plain of Dharwar. The Kappatgode itself forms the highest 
part of the ridge, which there rises about 1,000 feet over the surrounding country in a hold, 
steep mass, whose flanks, though bare of jungle, are much obscured by debris, and during 
the rains well covered with long lemon-grass. 
The rocks which form this ridge and all the adjacent country for many miles around 
, . , ... . . . belong to the great gneiss formation of Southern India, and 
llocks belong to the gneissic senes. , , ° . . ’ 
have here been subjected to immense disturbances, pro¬ 
ducing great contortions and fractures, and in parts a much greater degree of metamorphism 
than is usually met with, which adds greatly to the difficulty of unravelling the very obscure 
stratigraphical features of these hills. A complete solution of these stratigraphical 
obscurities will only be obtained by extending the survey both north and south of the auri¬ 
ferous tract, to which alone I confined my attention, as my time was limited and moreover 
much encroached upon by frequent heavy rain-storms. Immediately north of the Kappat¬ 
gode Hills the continuity of the ridge is broken by a cross valley running nearly due east 
and west, and opening into the plains immediately west of Dambal. This valley is drained 
by the Dhoni nullah, which falls into the great Dambal tank, whence its waters eventually 
