Chap. II.] geneual description of counthy. 21 



surface is sometimes undulating, and at one spot on the Coast, tlie allu- 

 vium forms a little bank a few feet high, now gradually yielding to the 

 denuding action of the waves * The recent alluvium, that below the 

 present flood level of the rivers, forms a narrow strip along the course 

 of the main streams, and can scarcely be defined with accuracy, owing 

 to the great works of irrigation which have now converted a large part 

 of the older alluvial tract into a wide spreading paddy swamp. 



The more elevated portion of the low country between the alluvium 



and the hills, is a gently undulating tract, formed 

 Higher parts of plains. i -n 



by sedmientary rocks on the East and crystalline 



rocks (principally gneiss and hornblende schist, with a few granite veins 



and greenstone dykes) on the West. The country is dry and barren, 



sometimes rocky, but more frequently covered 

 Soils. 



with the soft black loam, known as '^regur" or 



cotton soil, and with the red ferruginous sand, termed "lal" elsewhere. 



The distribution of these two soils, and its bearing on the Physical 



Geography of the country in recent times, is a point of much interest, 



and will be more fully treated hereafter. It is sufficient for the present 



to mention that the latter soil prevails in the Eastern part of our area, 



where it usually bears a tall thick growing jungle of Ewpliorhia, 



Melastoma and various other plants, while the former occupies the 



country South of the Yellaur between the red soil and the hills, overlying 



both the sedimentary and crystalline rocks. It is, in fact, continuous 



with the ancient alluvium of the Vellaur and Cauvery, already described. 



A few small rocky hills, rarely exceeding 200 feet or 300 feet in height, 



Countiy of ciystalliue ^^6 dotted at intervals over the country occupied 



'■^^ by the crystalline and setui-crystalhne rocks, and 



on some of the larger of these hills are perched the little forts or droogs of 



the old Poligar Chiefs, the names of which occur so frequently in the 



history of the wars of the Carnatic. 



* For this fact I am indebted to Messrs. Iving and Foote's Reports. 



