120 



Geology of Bangalore, and of 



tern and eastern ghauts, the Neilghenies unithig the two— the passes 

 leading down into Malabar and Canara being very grand. 



Iron is generally obtained in Mysore from the iron sand, very abun- 

 dant in some parts of the country, and washed down into the nullahs. 

 On the Baba Booden hills it is obtained from the magnetic and hasmati- 

 tic iron ores. Buchanan mentions its being obtained from two ores at 

 Ghettipura, a village about 7 miles from Maurgree. From his descrip- 

 tion of the Aduru Cullu, it appears to he a quartz much impregnated 

 with iron, the hard specimens called the male stones, and those in a 

 decomposing state, the female. The other ore, mentioned by him under 

 the name of ipanada, I imagine to be the magnetic iron ore, pure with- 

 out any admixture of quartz ; for this is found occasionally in the fields 

 and on the roads all over Mysore. In most of the rocks around Ban- 

 galore and on the roads, pieces of a very ferruginous looking character 

 s*re seen. They have the appearance of iron, but are quite light, and do 

 not affect the magnetic needle, but when ground into dust, are attracted 

 strongly by the magnet. I was long unable to define them, but I now 

 think they are specimens of what Dr. Heyne calls ferrilite, a species of 

 hornblende, and from this ferrilite much iron must be derived. 



Antimony — one or two specimens of this were brought me by a native 

 from or near the Baba-Boodens. He says it is abundant there, and if so, it 

 is an important discovery, for Dr. Ainslie mentions that this mineral 

 has not hitherto been found in our Indian dominions. 



Gold 3Lnd silver have both been found in Mysore. From what I observed 

 at Manantoddy and in the Wynaud jungle,in a direction towards the Neil- 

 gherries, I have no doubt gold exists in considerable quantity in this most 

 unhealthy district. At Mullialum, not far from the bottom of the 

 Neilghenies, a species, or rather sub-species, of raja rents from Govern- 

 ment the golden region. Mullialum is not in Mysore, but on the 

 borders of it. The golden region is about a mile and a half from the 

 village, and opposite it. A very high mountain is seen rising above 

 the others, shaped somewhat at the top like the head of a violincello. 

 In front of it are a smaller range of hills, and it is on the sides of these 

 where pits are dug, and the yellow or red soil removed and washed for 

 gold. Near these pits, and carried round the small hills, are artificial 

 water-courses, and the soil is taken from the pits in baskets and washed 

 there. In the excavations, along with a very rich yellow soil, are stones 

 of quartz. The surface of the ground is covered with long coarse grass, 

 below which there is about 2 or 3 feet of a red earth, full of pieces of 

 quartz, and below a rich clayey reddish yellow earth. A quartz rock is 

 the prevailing one in the Wynaud, as far as I could observe, and in many 



