Records of the Urological Surrey of India. 
[vol. II. 
to becouie visible. Heights not being given upon the best maps obtainable, the elevation of 
this plain and its boundary ranges could not be ascertained even approximately in the absence 
of a barometer—which is to be regretted, as the main watershed of India separates the 
sources of the Poorna from those of the Wurdah, the water of the former being discharged 
eventually at Surat whilst those of the Wurdah are tributary to the Godaveri, which 
enters the sea below Rajahmundry on the opposite side of the peninsula. 
The alluvium of this great plain, although of very considerable depth and occupying 
so large an area, is as completely isolated from that of the neighbouring rivers as such a 
deposit can be said to be. A section crossing the valley from the Adjnnta ghats, by Edula- 
bad across the Poorna river, to the western termination of'the Gawilghnr range, would show 
the ordinary trap of the Deccan, forming the high ground at either end, and an undulating 
country between, which viewed from above or from a distance has a plain-like aspect, hut 
frequently exposes the rocks of which it is formed; consisting of the usual traps, here and 
there covered only by slight, detrital accumulations of the same kinds as those of the Deccan. 
Except on the very banks of the Poorna no considerable quantity of alluvial matter would 
be found, and this does not extend far from the river at either side. North and south through 
Mulkapoor a different section would be obtained. Here a wide space, chiefly on the south 
side of the Poorna, is occupied by fine brown calcareous alluvium with ‘ kunkur’ and is 
connected by a narrow neck, at Peeprala, with the great alluvial deposit of this valley which 
in thickness may exceed 150 feet; and nothing else, save varieties of this, is to be seen in or 
near the river from Dadulgaon on its south bank eastwards up the stream nearly to the 
“ sungum” or junction of the Phairlee river, which enters the Poorna near Ivowsa, if we 
except two or three small exposures of trap in its bed near Peeprala Pulsoad and’about 
three miles west of Burra Golagaon. The Poorna changes its course from the N. N. E. 
at the junction of the above-named tributary, and thence takes a westerly direction the 
alluvium on its south side seldom extending beyond an average of ten miles from the river 
and nearly coinciding along its southern boundary with the Nagpoor extension of the Great 
Indian Peninsula Railway while oil the north it reaches nearly to the base of the moun¬ 
tains. On the cast its rather arbitrary and more or less indefinite boundary closely 
approaches the watershed east of Ellichpoor and bending southward traverses undulating 
country eventually reaching the-flanks of the hills near Oomrawuttee.* 
All round the margin of this alluvial tract is a belt of country that might or mio-ht 
not with propriety be included within it, although the surface deposits there do not conceal 
the underlying rock, the exposure of which was "taken as the chief guide in determining 
the line of boundary. On the north and east, this tract, of country is very stony, though 
nothing resembling an old beach is seen, and it may be supposed that streams descending 
from the mountains and hills have frequently travelled across this space, their courses sub¬ 
ject to lateral deviation, covering the u'holc of it with the coarser fragments brought down 
by floods at a time perhaps when the water of a, lake or the sea, occupied the basin of the 
finer alluvium and arrested the boulder-hearing velocity of these mountain streams.! 
In every part of the alluvium calcareous conglomerate or concrete is of common 
occurrence. It occasionally contains fragments of hone or fossil teeth of ruminants, but, 
although sought for, no large accumulation nor even a large fragment of these fossils, was 
observed. Yet enough was seen to show au identity of the conditions under which these 
deposits and those of the Nerbudda valley were formed. This sub-recent conglomerate! 
is very frequent in the stony tract above mentioned. It was everywhere searched for w'orked 
flints hut, without success, although one flake was found in a quite similar deposit, forming 
the right bank of the Godaveri at Pyton in the Deccan, at a considerable distance to the 
south. 
Small laud shells are not uncommon in the alluvium, some were preserved and trans¬ 
mitted to Calcutta, but in general they were too fragile for removal. They appeared to 
belong to existing species. Specimens of Melania luberndata; Paludina Bengalensis; 
Bithinia pulchel/a; Lymnma —■; Planorbis—; U/iio (?) favidens: 17.—? have been 
recognized. 
* Pronounced Oom’rowtee. 
$ The native name for this ‘ concrete’ is “ Khrruk.” 
