Ch. 1: Diamonds of India

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	DIAMONDS.	21

	GOLAPILLY. The diamond pits at this locality, according to Mr. King, were sunk in conglomerates and pebble beds of tertiary age* (Rajahmundry sandstone group). Mr. Blanford f says that the Diggings appear not to have been in the sandstone itself, but in the very gravelly laterite which rests upon the sandstone, but the surface is so much broken and altered by the pits that it is difficult to say. The workings cover a very considerable area. At the time of Mr. Blanford's visit (1871) these mines had the appearance of having been long abandoned, being covered with bush jungle. Dr. Heyne (Tracts) stated that In the Ellore district the diamond stratum is covered by a thick stratum of calcareous trap. This does not appear to have been confirmed by any subsequent writer, and is apparently a mistake. The thickness of the conglomerate is said to be from two to six feet thick, perhaps more in some' places. Mulaily, or Malavilly, N.E. of Bezwarra. As at Golapilly, the mines here also were in tertiary conglomerates (King). Captain Newboldt describes the bed of gravel in which the pits were sunk as being " composed chiefly of rolled pebbles of quartz sandstone, chert, ferruginous jasper, conglomerate sandstone, and kankar, lying in a stratum of dark mould about a foot thick." He appears, according to Mr. * " Records of the Geological Survey of India," vol. x. p. 58. + Idem, vol. v. p. 27. t Geological Notes, p. 67 of Carter's " Collection of Geological Papers."

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