1845.] across the Peninsula of Southern India. 415 



tricts, and other parts of the interior; and to the native port of 

 Kompta on the Western coast, passing down the Gairsuppa or Hos- 

 sulmucki Ghaut and the Hoss Ghaut, on bullocks. Iron is procured 

 in the neighbouring hills. 



Ridge of the Western Ghauts. Between Siddapore and the Falls of 

 Gairsuppa, the highest edge of the Ghaut ridge is crossed; the water- 

 sheds of the table-lands to the Eastward, and of the mountain-streams 

 that rush in the monsoon with great violence down their precipitous 

 sides and across the narrow strip at their base into the Indian 

 sea. 



The Warda was the last stream of any size observed flowing Eas- 

 terly. The Ghauts descend to the Westward from this anticlinal axis 

 by short and steepish declivities and irregular terraces. The surface 

 rock is principally a quartzy lateritic conglomerate, overlying the 

 hypogene schist, principally hornblende schist, gneiss, mica, chloride, 

 talcose, and actynolitic schists, which are occasionally seen basseting 

 out. The more ferruginous of these schists disintegrate into a compact 

 red clay, in which are seen veins of quartz continued from the subja- 

 cent rocks, still maintaining their slope and direction. 



The soil is red and clayey, and in the rains greasy and slippery 

 in the extreme, owing probably to the decayed talc and mica ; garnets 

 abound in it. 



Physical aspect W, Ghauts. As the Ghauts are approached from 

 the plateau of Mysore, the flat plains begin to undulate, rising all 

 the time to the Westward, and as the traveller progresses the undu- 

 lations become shorter and more perceptible, till the highest ridge 

 of the Pass is attained. The height of the rocks on either side of the 

 path is generally concealed by forest. 



The nature of the vegetation that clothes the surface too suffers a 

 manifest change, and becomes more profuse. In place of the clumps 

 of mangoes and tamarind, which diversify the plains with their hedges 

 and thickets of Aloe, Euphorbia, Cacti, Acacia, Cassia, Parkinsonia ? 

 we see graceful clumps of bamboo, the broad -leafed Bilami, Marsea 

 Chinensis, the leaves and root of which are supposed to be specifics 

 for snake-bites, and the Dudol yielding excellent timber. The 

 Pulas (Butea Frondosa) with its brilliant orange-red flowers yield- 

 ing a beautiful yellow dye known to the preparers of the coloured 



