18 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. IV. 
None of the limestones agree in color or texture with that which yielded Dr. Hunter's 
specimens, and I cannot help having the strongest doubts as to the correctness of Dr. 
Hunter’s statement that the Terehratulce in question came from Ryalcheroo, or any other 
place in that neighbourhood, as the statement in question rests only on the authority of his 
memory, which in this instance has, I firmly believe, played him false. 
When Dr. Hunter showed me those Terehratulce some days before the meeting of the 
Council, they were unlahelled in a drawer containing many other fossils from Europe, equally 
unlabelled, and mixed up together regardless of geological age, or natural orders. Whatever 
Major Bissett’s specimens may havo been, I cannot but think that, from trusting too much 
to his memory, and from keeping his collections in a state of utter disorder. Dr. Hunter has 
made a mistake, and unintentionally taken some European specimens for Major Bissett’s. 
The presence of petroleum in the limestones at Khona Oopalapad might offer some little 
support to Dr. Hunter’s expectations of finding coal in the Cuddapah rock series, if proved, 
but unfortunately no petroleum can be found there. 
The only substance which, following his directions, could be found at Khona Oopalapad, 
either by Mr. Kclsall, the Acting Sub-Collector of Bellary, or by myself, was a dark brown, 
glistening, foetid substance which has dribbled out of numerous small caves in the face of 
the cliff overhanging the Khona Eamaswainy Pagoda. 
This substance, though somewhat resembling petroleum in color, differs very markedly 
by refusing to burn. Before the blow pipe it volatilized without any appearance of flame. 
The small caves out of which this brown substance dribbles are tenanted by numerous 
bats and blue pigeons whose excrements are, by percolation of water in wet weather, converted 
into a species of guano retaining a very unpleasant bat-like odour. 
The limestone cliffs in which this ‘ bat-guano’ occurs do not belong to the Cuddapah 
rock series, but are formed of a recent travertin deposited on the scarp of those older rocks 
by streams flowing from a more elevated plateau of limestone (of the Kurnool (Karnul) series), 
which lies uneonformably on them. 
The small caves are mostly spaces left between numerous large stalactites in the traver¬ 
tin, otherB are of artificial origin. The travertin is still being formed, but probably in far 
less quantity than in former periods when the country was less arid. Numerous organisms, 
such as land-shells, and leaves of trees of living species, have been encrusted by the travertin, 
and their impressions are beautifully clear. 
The * bat-guano,’ I find, had been pronounced by my colleagues, the late C. 2E. Oldham 
and W. King, Junr., not to be petroleum. I was not aware of this till after my visit to 
Khona Oopalapad. 
In reply to a letter in which I drew his attention to the fact that the supposed petroleum 
refused to burn, Dr. Hunter informs me that the specimen he received from Mr. Smart, 
late Chief Engineer of the Madras Railway, burnt with a strong flame, dropping and giving 
off much gas, but he does not know exactly from where Mr. Smart got it. I intend writing 
to Mr. Smart on this subject as soon as I can ascertain his present address. 
It thus appears that none of Dr. Hunter’s statements have been substantiated, while 
the most important have proved to be entirely without foundation. These statements were 
no doubt made by Dr. Hunter in a sincere belief in the correctness of his deductions, but 
the latter, unfortunately, were based on a series of hasty, crude, and in some cases utterly 
incorrect, observations evidencing such a want of practical knowledge of geology and several 
other sciences that in future his ‘ geological discoveries’ should be received with extreme 
caution. 
