1839] 



some other portio7is of Mysore. 



il9 



very extraordinary how few rocks elevate themselves above the 

 ground. We may wander over one hill and then another for miles, and 

 not meet with a simple rock. Decomposition has taken place to a great 

 extent as shown where sections have been made in forming the roads. 

 In some of the deep sections near Mercara much porcelain earth is 

 found in beds in -h.^ litbomarii ic earth, and some of a decomposed earth 

 answering to the shidi ir-iinriu m tb" neighbourhood of Bangalore. In 

 a deep pit about two and a h:;lf n.'He^ from Mercara, a thick bed of late- 

 rite was pointed out to me by my most intelligent friend Dr. Bailde. 

 On the top of some of the hills I found granite or rather pegmatite, and 

 the viillevs below of a whiter rolonr than usual. The hilis at Coorg are 

 smaller and more irregularly grouped together, with njimprous narrow 

 valleys intervening, many of them so narrow, that the inhabitants cut 

 away a little of the lower portion of some of the hills, in order to cul- 

 tivate : being able in this way to irng;ite. All the vallevs I snw con- 

 tained a light yellow soil, and from, this and an inspection of some few 

 of the rocks whi di occasionally have resisted decomposition, I imagine 

 felspar is the most abundant mineral, which with hornblende has form.ed 

 the lithomargic earth. On the Neilgherries, the surface of the soil in 

 the valleys is black, with a yellow clay beneath — here the soil in the 

 valleys and generally on the hills is light yellow. There is another 

 great difference in the vegetation. On the Neilgherries many of the 

 hills are bare, or have only trees at their bottom or running up a portion 

 of their sides ; whereas at Coorg, most of the hills are covered to their 

 very summits with a variety of trees of the most beautiful kind. The 

 immense quantity of rain which falls (the quantity from June 1835 to 

 May 1833 being 119.14 and from June 1836 to May 1837 87.04— for 

 this information I am indebted to Dr. Eaikie), must encourage vegetati- 

 on, and the decomposition of rock. 



According to Dr. Baikie the temperature is most equable, the daily 

 range inside never exceeding 6° or 8°, often not beyond 2°. Thermo- 

 meter seldom above 74, or belov\' GO. The maximum of barometer occurs 

 during the dry season, the highest noted being 28.220 — and the low^est 

 in Jul}'- during the monsoon 25.9 i 2 — the greatest daily range observed 

 was .076 the mean .050. Mercara is 4506 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and its mean temperature is perhaps about 68. Ootacamund is 7361 

 feet, its mean temperature 58.63. Bangalore nearly 3,000 feet, mean 

 temperature about 75. The Western Ghauts consist of hornblende rock, 

 with garnets and sienitic granite-— mica is not absent— a micaceous rock 

 with much foliated mica I found at the very top of the Heggula ghaut. 

 Mysore is surrounded on three sides, south, east and v/est, by the wes- 



