PAltT II.] 
Ulmifuril: Geology of Of Lisa. 
61 
as if it had been originally a beach deposit, and to the west of the high road to Katak 
the metamorphic hills are surrounded in general by broad terrace-like flats, frequently 
stretching from hill to hill, and when they do not do so, affording evidence that the laterite 
is continued beneath the intervening alluvium. This laterite is frequently employed for 
building purposes. 
Puei.—T he southern district of Orissa is much smaller in size than either of the 
others, and yet the extent of hard rocks is larger than in either Katak or Balasur. All the 
country near the coast and a broad tract in the north-east of the district are alluvial, but 
the western parts of the area are occupied by laterite, sandstone, and metamorphic rocks. 
There is a very small extent of the older undulating alluvium; almost all the eastern part 
of the distiict, and the country extending from the Mahanaddi to the Chilka lake is per¬ 
fectly flat, and consists of the newer or delta alluvium. Hence its liability to flooding from 
the Mahanaddi. Hills of blown sand extend along the whole coast, and frequently are 
disposed in two or three' principal ranges,—the first close to the shore, the second from 
one to two miles inland, and occasionally there is another still further from the sea. 
The greater portion of Perganas Domipada and Dandimul, south-west of the town of 
Ivatak, consist of the Atgark sandstone, composed, as already mentioned, of coarse sandstones 
and conglomerates. To the west these beds appear to rest on the metamorphic rocks, and 
they have a general dip to the east and south-east, at low angles not exceeding 5° or 6°. 
They are surrounded on all sides by laterite and alluvium. At their apparent base to the 
west is a coarse conglomerate, the pebbles chiefly of quartzite. 
These rocks contain one hand at least of white clay, which is largely dug, and used for 
white-washing houses and for other purposes. 
South-west of the sandstone country and west of Khurda, there is a broad undulating 
plain, partly covered with laterite through which the gneiss rises at intervals. In the extreme 
west of the district around Dolgarh and Goriali, there are two very barren ranges of no 
great height, running east and west, and formed of compact, rather granitoid gneiss. 
From this point, whence the boundary of the district turns to the eastward as far as the 
Chilka lake, only detached hills occur, all of gneiss, with intervening plains of laterite and 
alluvium. The group of hills near Ckatarma are of granitoid gneiss, most of the others 
are of garnetiferous gneiss with quartzose bands. Such are Khurda hill and the smaller 
rises in the neighbourhood, and also the hills cast of the Katak and Gaujam road between 
Ramesliwar and Monglajuri. 
Precisely similar country extends to the west of the Chilka lake. The lake itself is a 
part of the sea first rendered shallow by deposits from the mouths of the Mahanaddi and 
from silt carried up the bay round the hills near Gaujam by the violent southerly winds of 
the monsoon, and then entirely cut off by a spit, formed, by the samo agency, of sand drifted 
along the coast. Near the south-western extremity of this spit there is a considerable 
deposit of estuarine shells, at a height of 20 to 30 feet above the present flood level of the 
Chilka. The shells found, Cgtlierea casta and Area gran oca, have not been observed living 
in the Chilka, and both are estuarine species, not occurring in the sea itself, but the former 
is now abundant in the estuary connecting the lake with the sea. This deposit appears to 
afford evidence of a recent elevation of the land. 
There can be but little doubt that the Chilka is gradually diminishing in size and in 
depth, but as it receives no streams of importance, the quantity of water charged with 
sediment poured into it is small, and its rate of decrease is probably very slow. Its fauna 
