INTRODUCTORY. 



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the northern half of the Alur and the western half of the Adoni 

 taluqs. The Chinna Tambalam nallah deserves notice, because it 

 drains the hilly tract north of Adoni and is lower down dammed 

 back to form the great Chinna Tambalam tank. 



Fiscal and Political Divisions of the District. — The district is di- 

 vided at present into eight taluqs, the central ones 

 Sandur State. 



of which surround the small State of Sandur. 



The latter consists of a long valley, enclosed between two considerable 

 hill ranges, and is inhabited by Canarese people ruled over by a 

 Mahratta Rajah of the historic house of Ghorpade. The hills are thickly 

 covered with low jungle and high coarse grass, and, except where 

 the ground is precipitous or much broken, few sections are seen unless 

 after a great jungle fire. In a few damp ravines and sholas remains 

 of thick forest are to be seen and occasional old stumps of large 

 trees are scattered about, showing that the soils resulting from the 

 decomposition of the old traps and schists were as rich as might be 

 excepted from their origin and at one time bore trees of respectable 

 size and good value. As the greater part of the Sandur forest tract 

 has been leased by Government and great efforts are being made to 

 prevent forest fires, there is good reason to anticipate that in due 

 time the hills will become once more well wooded, a condition of 

 things tending greatly to benefit the surrounding country by cheap- 

 ening timber and firewood and causing many springs and streams 

 which are now intermittent to become perennial again. These 

 measures may have a very beneficial tendency in reviving the char- 

 coal iron industry of the country which still languishes round the base 

 of the hills. 



The Bellary taluq is mainly a great plain covered for the most 



part by thick spreads of cotton soil, out of which 



Bellary Taluq. . 



rise at intervals large and small isolated rocky 



hills of granite gneiss, which have been pretty well denuded of the 



jungle that formerly covered them. It is only in the south of the 



taluq that any really important hills exist, to wit, the Sugadevi Betta 



or Copper Mountain ridge, and its north-western and south-eastern 



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