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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 15, p. 320.

3210 KISTNA DLSTRICT includes mica and chloritic schists with quartzites), and of more massive granitoid gneisses, all much interbanded and disturbed. They are also pierced by occasional younger dioritic dikes, granite, felsite, and quartz veins. North-west of this- Archaean belt comes the more elevated, often plateau-like, country of the Cuddapah and Kurnool series of the Purāna group. This is an enormous series (aggregating over 20,000 feet thick) of unfossiliferous, but little altered, sedimentary strata, gently inclined as a whole. They comprise repetitions of quartzitec and shaly sub-series, with occasional conglomerates and limestones, and interbedded traps near the base. The Kurnools overlie the Cuddapahs unconformably, forming numerous plateaux, and possess a basal diamantiferous conglomerate. South-cast of the Archaean band are a few scattered outliers _of the much younger Upper Gond- wānas, with plant-beds and Jurassic marine shells, a double sandstone series with shales between; and these in turn underlie a little sub- recent Cuddalore sandstone, and great stretches of coastal and deltaic alluvium with a few patches of lateritic rock. The flora of the District presents no special characteristics, the plants being mainly the usual cultivation weeds of the Coromandel coast. Along the sandy shore are found the usual sand-binders, Spinifex squarrosus and Ipomoea ; and cashew-nut trees (Anacardiuna occidentale) occur in scattered nooks. The principal crops and forest trees are referred to later. Generally speaking, the District is very bare of tree-growth. Wild animals are far from plentiful. Tigers and sdmbar are found in the Palnād and Vinukonda jungles, on the Medasala Durga ridge, and on the Kondapalli and Kondavild hills. Leopards and an occa- sional bear lurk in the rocky eminences of some of the inland tdluks. A few antelope are to be seen in the Bāpatla tdluh, and wild hog are not uncommon in various parts. Bird life is more prominent. Almost every species of South Indian feathered game, except the woodcock and hill partridge, is to be found in the District. Snipe, duck, and teal abound in the season; and the Colair Lake is the home of almost all the known inland aquatic birds. It is also fairly stocked with fish. The climate of the District, although in parts trying owing to the great heat, may be set down as healthy. Fever is on the whole uncommon. Masulipatam (the head-quarters), with a mean tempera- ture of 82°, a recorded maximum of 117', and a minimum of 58°, possesses perhaps the most equable climate; and on the coast gener- ally, except for a short time in the month of May, the heat is never unbearable. The temperature of the Palnād, Sattanapalle, Nandigāma, and Tiruvfir tdluks during November, December, and January resembles that of the Mysore plateau, the thermometer falling to 65'; but the temperature becomes extremely high during May and June.