PART 1.] 
Annual Report for 1871. 
3 
Mr. Blanford later in the season carried out a general mapping of the extent of the 
sandstone area in this part of the Nizam’s dominions, and southward into Madras Presidency, 
where it stretches down to within about eight miles of Ellore. All these rocks as seen at surface 
appear to belong to the group which occurs over the true coal-bearing rocks. The country is 
very widely covered by jungle and poor forest, and is in many places quite inaccessible for close 
or detailed examination. But, so far as practicable, a knowledge of its structure will be 
obtained during the present year by Mr. King, who has been placed there for this purpose. 
Mr. Blanford completed a long season in this very unhealthy country; but not, I 
regret to say, without suffering. He was very unwell afterwards in Calcutta, but was able 
to take the field in Sind at the beginning of the present season. On his way thither, he 
devoted some time to the examination of the neighbourhood of Bombay, where the Municipal 
Commissioner had sought the advice of a Geologist with reference to a proposed plan of 
conveying water to the city through tunnels in the solid rock, which it was supposed would 
prove much cheaper than the laying down of iron pipes. 
Since Mr. Blanford’s arrival in Sind, be has been deputed to accompany the Boundary 
Commission under Sir F. Goldsmid in its visit to Seistan, &c., a trip from which 
I confidently anticipate that much valuable information regarding a country almost 
entirely unknown will be derived. It is a duty also for which Mr. Blanford’s wide acquaint¬ 
ance with Natural History in general as well as Geology peculiarly qualifies him. He has 
made most excellent use of the brief delay which occurred before starting, and has been able 
to visit many places of interest in the Persian Gulf and also on the Arabian Coast. 
Mr. W. King, Deputy Superintendent for Madras, on his return from furlough, com¬ 
menced his field examination from the Toongabudra river, and examined the country lying 
on either side of the Madras aud Bombay railway up to the boundary of the great area of trap 
rocks which cover such an immense space in the Deccan. The main object, as stated before, was 
to carry out here an investigation of the several rocks which occur between this vast thick¬ 
ness of overlying trappean rocks above and the even more widely spread base of the under¬ 
lying gneiss and other metamorphic rocks below. Joining on, therefore, to the south-west with 
the lines already fixed by Mr. Foote as noticed in last report, Mr. King advanced to the north¬ 
east, and was able to get over about 1,400 square miles of area up to Gorffburga. Towards 
the latter part of the season Mr. King was attacked with fever, and other symptoms, and was 
driven into Bombay for medical advice. On getting better, he quickly returned to his work ; 
but the season was then so far advanced that much further progress was impracticable. 
The rocks met with were (1st) the crystalline metamorphics, consisting chiefly of 
granitoid gneiss, qnartzo-felspathic in composition, with little foliation, where seen with a 
northerly strike and at low angles. This gneiss is much traversed by small granite veins 
(binary,) lying to a large extent in the lines of dip. Occasional bands of hornblendic gneiss 
also occur. The hilly and ragged parts are also frequently studded over with large bosses and 
tors. The surface is generally fiat and covered lip by black cotton soil and alluvial deposits. 
Overlying the gneiss in the valley of the Bheetna is a series of limestones, sub-metamorphic 
in texture and hearing a strong general resemblance to the Karnul rocks. This may bo pro¬ 
visionally called the Bheema group. It consists in descending order of—Red purple and 
chocolate coloured calcareous shales, flags and thin-bedded earthy-grey limestones; thicker 
bedded earthy And sub-crystalline limestones. There is locally a great lenticular patch ol quart- 
zitic, sandy and conglomeratic beds. There arc also, of course, many local variations in the 
groups from the general character given above. The most remarkable of these is a series ol 
breceiated beds, in which the materials composing the layers have been separated into numerous 
