82 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 



the season. But in 1876-77 a serious famine overspread the 

 greater part of Madras, and survey work in Mysore had con- 

 sequently to be restricted to those tracts in the Nandidrug and 

 Nagar divisions where it was easier to obtain water, provisions, and 

 forage. This seriously lessened the out-turn of work of the two 

 parties (Nos. 8 and 9), and at the close of the season, as so many 

 members of these parties had been necessarily deputed to famine relief 

 duties, it was deemed better to amalgamate the remaining survey 

 officers into one party under Major H. R. Thuillier, R.E. (now Sur- 

 veyor-General of India). On taking the field next year the prospects 

 were better than could have been expected, considering the disasters 

 to which the province had been subjected. The tanks were well 

 filled, pasturage was abundant, ami but for the deserted look of the 

 villages a stranger could not have imagined that famine and 

 drought had so lately been devastating the country. Nevertheless 

 the season was particularly unhealthy. Fever of a virulent type 

 broke out early in the field season in many parts, and all the 

 European members of the party, except the officer in charge, were 

 laid up, while the menial establishment, without a single exception, 

 suffered more or less. During 1878-79 seven surveyors, assistants, 

 and sub-surveyors rejoined the party after being temporarily 

 employed on famine relief duties, so that it became practicable to 

 split the party again into two detachments. One of these detachments 

 was engaged in triangulating the western part of the State, pre- 

 paratory to a detail survey of the tracts between Mysore and South 

 Kauara, so as to aid in the settlement of the long-debated frontier 

 survey, while the other detachment was occupied in the detail survey 

 of part of the Nandidrug division. In the Malnad, as the country 

 over which the triangulation extended is called, the principal feature 

 is the Western Ghats, rising to a height of over 6,000 feet, covered 

 for the most part with magnificent virgin forest, and forming the 

 sourcf of numerous rivers. The western face of this range is 

 extremely precipitous, so as to be nearly inaccessible from that side, 

 but from the eastern face numerous spurs branch out in all direc- 

 tions, and form more or less continuous chains of hills, which with 

 innumerable undulations overspread the greater part of the State. 

 The Malnad is essentially the country of rain and fog, and two or 

 three months immediately after the monsoon season it is looked 

 upon as most unhealthy for these not acclimatised to it. Its staple 

 products are coffee, betel-nut, cardamoms, and pepper, and the 

 trade is mainly effected by means of pack-cattle, locomotion being 



