1839] 



some other port'fons of Mysore, 



in the roeks in this ghaut, than any of the others, and masses of it de- 

 composing give a chalky appearance to some parts of the road. Some 

 way down there are beds of compact felspar, through which a green 

 basalt has burst, and mixed itself up with, and the hornblende in the 

 rock then becomes of a green colour, being generally black all over the 

 hills. About Adams Peak, 4^ miles down the ghaut, garnets appear in 

 the rock in nests, and afterwards abound in it. The bottom of the pass 

 is about 400 feet higher than Bangalore. As the Neilgherries are not a 

 part of Mysore, it would be out of place my describing them here, a 

 task so ably and minutely executed by Dr. Benza. 



In describing another part of Mysore, I will take a fresh departure 

 from its capital, and proceed in the direction of Coorg. At Yelwall, distant 

 about 9 or 10 miles, the country is elevated and rather bleak, much high 

 coarse grass covering the ground ; cultivation in the valleys. In the com- 

 pound attached to the Residency, there is a good deal of chromate of iron, 

 wdiich was found I believe by Captain Haldane, the officer commanding the 

 Resident's escort ; it is lying in pieces on the ground, and near it a rock 

 of hornblende slate of a green colour, which as it has a tinge of yellow 

 externally on its decomposing surface, most likely contains a little of the 

 chromate. At the bottom of the Residency, but outside the wall, there is 

 a nullah, where mica or chlorite slate is exposed. The sand in the nullah 

 abounds with garnets, some of considerable size. Kunkar is also found 

 at Yelwall, some feet below ground, in lumps or nodules of a brownish 

 colour, and irregular, almost pisiform, surface; the soil is inclined 

 to black where it is found, and pieces of hornblende slate cover 

 the ground. There is magnesite also I am informed in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The road betw^een Yelwall and Hoonsoor is through low 

 jungle, or what in some places would with more propriety be 

 called brushwood ; quite a trap region, some specimens of the trap 

 povphyritic, forming a greenstone or hornblende porphyry, crystals 

 of felspar imbedded. 



Towards Hoonsoor, much magnetic iron ore on the road. Near this 

 place the country is more jungly, and Hoonsoor itself lies rather 

 low, rising ground on all sides, hilly to the south and west, some of 

 the hills covered with low jungle, the soil both black and red. 

 The locality is a very interesting one, and the mineralogical fea- 

 tures w^ere pointed out to me by Mr. Gilchrist. Besides granite, gneiss 

 and trap, of which there are several dykes ; the granite and trap decom- 

 posing in concentric laminae, like the basalt eii houille of the French, or 

 nodular basalt of Voysey ; there is in some places a good de*l of a brown 

 and rather compact but not crystaline limestone, or rather ancient kun- 

 kar, which instead of being united, as at Goondlepett, with hornblende, 



