1836.] 



Sketches of the Meteorology, 8fC. 



185 



Sketches of the Meteorology, Geology, Agriculture, Botany, and Zoology, 

 of the Southern Mahratta Country.— By Alexander Turnbull 

 Christie, m. d. 



( From the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.) 



General Description. — The district of Darwar, in the southern Mah- 

 ratta country, is of an irregular triangular shape ; the apex of the 

 triangle being towards the south, in north latitude 14° 20', and its base 

 towards the north, on an average, in 16° 23'. Its most westerly point, 

 towards the Goa territory, and which forms one of the angles at the 

 base, is about 74° 5' east longitude, and its most easterly point, which 

 is the remaining angle, is in east longitude 76° 22'. It is bounded 

 on the north by the Kolapore country, and river Kistnah; on the east 

 by the Hydrabad country, and the Honourable Company's district of 

 Bellary; on the south by Mysore; and on the west by Soondah, (a dis- 

 trict of Canara), and by the western gauts, which divide it from the 

 Goa territories. Within these boundaries, besides the British pos- 

 sessions, are many separate tracts, belonging to independent Jagheer- 

 dars, and tributary chieftains of different denominations ; but so sub- 

 divided and varied in their outline, that it would be nearly impossi- 

 ble, and of little use, to give a description of them. 



The following observations are not exclusively confined to the Dar- 

 war district ; but sometimes extend to that of Canara, and to the Por- 

 tuguese territory of Goa, and thus occasionally embrace the whole tract 

 of country from the Tumboodrato the coast. 



The Darwar district is very generally known in India bv ihe name 

 of the Southern Mahratta Dooab; which name it has re^ xve ^ from the 

 circumstance of its extending between the rivers K^tnah and Turn bo o- 

 dra. But this term properly includes the ^ hole tract of country east- 

 ward, to the junction of these rivev, thus embraces a considerable 

 portion of the Nizam's donjons. When this term occurs, therefore, 

 in the course of thf snowing observations, it is to be understood in the 

 above extended sense. 



The gauts above Goa, and which form part of the western boundary 

 of the district, have an elevation of 2,500 or 2,600 feet, above the level 

 of the sea, whence the country gradually slopes to the Tumboodra, 

 which is about 1,500 feet above the level of the sea*. In this part of 

 India, there is nothing like mountainous scenery, except immediately 

 under the western face of the gauts ; for as soon as you attain their 

 summits in proceeding eastward, you are on the inclined plain which 

 shelves to the eastern coast; and the general declination of 

 is only interrupted by gentle hills, which seldom attain * Height of 

 above two or three hundred feet. 



* The different altitudes which are stated in the folio* *»g observations, were ascer- 

 tained by Major Cullen of the Madras Artillery by barometrical measurement. 



