some other portions of Mysore. 



107 



liieut. Munro and Mr. Gough, I have been favoured with some speci- 

 mens of which they say the Baba-Booden hills principally consist* 

 Flintv slate and quartz rock seem common, and are much impregnated 

 with iron. One specimen of flinty slate, or perhaps what Buchanan would 

 -call hornstone, affects the magnet, and another is full of particles of iron 

 sand, granular magnetic iron ore. I possess two kinds of the magnetic 

 iron — one an amorphous mass, of a reddish blue coloui', highly magnetic-, 

 and possessing polarity in a very great degree— in fact the natural mag- 

 fiet or loadstone, apparently the same as found in Siberia and the Hartz, 

 The other specimen or specimens are slaty, tabular slaty masses, exter^ 

 nally of a brownish yellow tinge and internally of a dark purple colour„ 

 This slaty kind is also highly magnetic, and exhibits polarity in a very 

 high degree. Besides these, there is haematitic iron ore, and its passage 

 into a rock which somewhat resembles laterite. An argillaceous pot- 

 stone seems also to be common; it is of a yellowish brown colour, very 

 soft and greasy, and is I imagine the talcose argellite of Buchanan, 

 some specimens more argillaceous than talcose, and others more talcose 

 -than argillaceous. 



Another kind of stone I possess of a dark colour externally, but 

 tnternally of an olive green black, very soft and rather greasy — 

 it is used for manufacturing gods out of. I have not seen it in 

 •any other part of Mysore, it may be called a talcose hornblende, being a 

 mixture of either talc or perhaps potstone with hornblende. In the 

 specimen described, the talc predominates over the hornblende, but in 

 ^>ome, found between Mysore and Nungengode, the hornblende predomi- 

 nates over the talc and is of a green colour. I am not aware that this 

 i-ock enters into the formation of the Baba-Boodens, but it is found in 

 the neighbourhood. 



The rocks then forming these hills are flinty slate, quartz rock, both 

 much impregnated with iron, the granular magnetic iron ore. Heema- 

 titic iron ore, slaty magnetic iron ore, and the same in amorphous 

 •masses, and argillaceous potstone. 



The whole of the Nuggur or Bednore district of Mysore abounds with 

 iron, which I am told fetches a very high price in the Bombay market, 

 AtHurryhur, distant from Bangalore 185 miles, and according toHeyne 

 1831 feet above the level of Madras, and probably the lowest point in the 

 whole of Mysore, Buchanan tells us the basis of the country is somewhat 

 between an argellite and schistose hornblende, and between the strata 

 of this argillaceous hornblende slate are masses of an earthy quartz or 

 hornstone impregnated with hornblende. 



I will now describe some portion of the south-west part of Mysore, 



