37 
MYSORE, CANARA, AND MALABAR. 
if he had seen this. “ How should I,” replied the other, “ when CHAPTER, 
it happened so long ago ?” The prevalent language at Tayculum 
is the Karnataca, called by us Canarese. I could not purchase a. 
bullock here for less than double the price that I had paid at Ma- 
dras. I found the people very unwilling to give me information ; 
and I am clearly convinced, from what I have already seen, that 
without authority to demand it, very little useful information on 
statistical subjects could be procured by a mere traveller. 
7th May.— In the morning I went to Waluru. On the whole day’s Face of t h e 
route I saw no hills, except those mentioned yesterday ; but at least countr y- 
six tenths of the whole country seem never to have been cultivated, 
and of this the greater part is covered with brush or copse wood. 
There is no large timber ; but in some* places the trees grow to a 
size sufficient for building the natives’ houses, and other country 
purposes. The greater part of the brush, however, is no higher 
than broom or furze, and consists chiefly of the Cassia auriculata , 
and Ptelea viscosa , which are the most common bushes throughout 
this part of the country. The soil is very unfavourable to vegeta- 
tion ; spaces of forty feet square, in many parts, are without a bush 
or stalk of grass ; and whole acres of it may be seen, on which 
there is nothing but a few scattered bushes, surrounded, at their 
roots, by small heaps of dust, which the passing wind deposits 
near the stems. This soil, by the Tamuls called Callaru, consists of 
clay, sand, and small fragments of stone ; all of which, when allowed 
to remain undisturbed, concrete, and acquire an almost stony hard- 
ness ; but the united mass is very capable of being reduced to 
powder by the plough, and then of producing tolerable crops of 
grain. The proportion of wet land to the whole of the arable, on 
this day’s route, is very small, and the crop of rice has been lately 
reaped. The cultivators are just beginning to plough their dry fields . 
The villages still appear to be fortified ; and the lower or impure 
casts not being permitted to build within the walls, their houses are 
surrounded by strong hedges of the Ccesalpinia Lacerans , Roxb. MSS 
/ 
