INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 135 



pearance of the country is the same. The rivers which flow 

 towards the Kistna are separated by spurs of a high table- 

 land, rarely rising into hiUs, so that the country appears nearly 

 flat, except to the eastward, where it dips suddenly into the 

 plain of the Carnatic. The elevation of Bellary is 1600 feet ; 

 Karnul is about 1000 feet ; and Cadapah, in the gorge of the 

 Penar, where it issues from among the mountains, is only 500 

 feet above the level of the sea. 



Another spur from the great peninsidar chain forms the 

 southern boundary of the province, separating the district 

 of Coimbator and the basin of the Bhowani river from the 

 upper basin of the Cavery. This range, which attains gene- 

 rally an elevation of nearly 4000 feet, extends in an easterly 

 direction from the eastern slopes of the Nilghiri. 



Between these two watersheds, the table-land of Mysore 

 forms a gently undulating plain, sloping downwards, from 

 4000 feet at the base of the mountains, to 3000 at Bangalor, 

 and 2400 at Seringapatam on the banks of the Cavery. 



The highlands of Mysore siiik everywhere abruptly into 

 the plain of the Carnatic, except where the great rivers de- 

 bouche ; and the extremities of the broad flat-topped ranges 

 which form the table-land, when viewed fi'om a little distance, 

 present the appearance of a continuous range of hills parallel 

 to the coast-line, commonly known as the Eastern Ghats. 



The districts of Bellary, Karnul, and Cadapah, which oc- 

 cupy the northern slope of the central range of Mysore, and 

 the higher parts of the basin of the Tungabudra and the Pe- 

 nar, are usually excluded from Mysore, being known as the 

 Ceded Districts, because they were transferred from the king- 

 dom of Mysore to the Nizam after the war in 1 800, and after- 

 wards made over to the British Government in lieu of a 

 money-payment. As they present no physical or botanical 

 features which would make it desirable to consider them as 

 a separate province, we shall include them under the general 

 name of Mysore, of which the Kistna will therefore form the 

 northern boundary. 



