58 
A JOURNEY FROM ’MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER 
Face of the 
country. 
V 
of lola (Holcus Sorghum) was young, and had entirely devoured it. 
The noise of this immense number of insects somewhat resem bled 
the sound of a cataract. At a distance they appeared like a long* 
narrow, red cloud near the horizon, which was continually varying 
its shape. The locusts were as large as a man’s finger, and of a 
reddish colour. Some of them I put into a box, intending next 
day to examine them ; but in the course of the night they were 
devoured by the ants. 
17 th May . — In the evening I went from Mundium to the banks 
of the Ccmery ( Kavari ), opposite to Seringapatam . For one half of 
the way the country is almost entirely free from rocks, or waste 
lands. Here I observed a space of about fifty yards in diameter, 
consisting entirely ofadenudated rock of very white glassy quartz . 
There was no other rock near it. The quartz separates into frag- 
ments of a rhomboidal form, from the size of an orange, to that of 
a man’s head; but those are all disposed in strata , every six or 
eight inches of rock separating, with a clean straight surface, from 
the similar parts on either hand. These strata are vertical ; but, 
contrary to all the others ' that I have seen in the country, run 
nearly east and west. 
About half way to Seringapatam I arrived at a hilly country that 
reaches very near to the Ccmery. On the south side of these hills 
Lord Cornwallis encamped, before the final engagement which gave 
him possession of the island. His marches from Bangalore may 
every where be traced by the bones of cattle, thousands of which 
perished through fatigue and hunger. The road among these hills is 
no where steep, as it leads over apart of the ridge that is not high ; 
but towards the west are numerous small mountains. Many parts 
of these hills are cultivated ; but much more is incapable of ever 
becoming arable. The whole is stony, and the barest country that 
I have ever seen. From ascending the ridge, until reaching the 
Ccmery , one can hardly find a bush sufficiently large to make a 
broom. Of the country in this day’s route perhaps seven tenths 
