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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 10, p. 357.

COIHBATORE DISTRICT 357 Kolar Gold Fields, and for lighting the city of Bangalore. The Bhavani, a perennial river, which rises in the Attapādi valley in Malabar, crosses the District from west to east just south of the three northern upland tdluks, and flows into the Cauvery at Bhavani town. The Noyil, a fitful and uncertain stream, which is in high and rapid flood for a few days and then for months together almost dry, has its source in the Bolampatti valley among the 'outlying spurs of the Nilgiris, and passes through Coimbatore city on its way to the Cauvery. The Amarāvati rises in the Anaimalai hills, receives the drainage of the northern slopes of the Palni hills in Madura District, and, after passing through Illhārāpuram and Karur towns, joins the Cauvery at the point where the Districts of Coimbatore and Trichinopoly touch one another. Most of the south of the District is composed of Archaean gneisses buried to a considerable extent under surface alluvium. The uniform level of the plain is sparingly broken at irregular intervals by small bands of members of the charnockite series of rocks, by one small band of syenite gneiss near Kāngayam, and by upstanding crags and ridges of crystalline schists. The northern hilly tracts include a vast area of charnockite rock. Near Kollegal are a few ferruginous bands and poor quartz reefs. Near Kāngayam some very coarse ramifications of acid pegmatites once yielded beryl ; and in the same locality corun- dum, which also occurs elsewhere, is found in a coarse red felspar rock. The flora is naturally very varied, since the elevation and the rainfall of the District differ greatly in different parts. The higher plateaux of the Anaimalais, the low hills of the northern tdluks, and the dry central plain each possess their own characteristic plants and trees. The forest growth and the° commoner crops are referred to briefly below. In the low country the trees differ little from those of neigh- bouring areas, and are usually of poor growth. Fruit trees are scarce. The well-known tangedy (Cassia auriculata), the bark of which is used in tanning, and fibres, resins, and vegetable oils of the common descriptions are abundant. The hill country contains all the game usual to such localities. Elephants are common in the Anaimalais and also occur in the Biligiri- Rangan hills in Satyamangalam. Near Hasaniir in the latter tdluk Sir Victor Brooke shot (in 1863) the largest elephant on record in this Presidency. It stood r r feet 4 inches at the highest point of its back, and one of its tusks measured 8 feet in length and weighed go lb., the other being diseased. Among rarer animals are the Nilgiri ibex (Hemitragus hylocrius), the hunting leopard (Cynaelurus jubatus), nilgai (73oselavhus trago- camelus), said to be descended from some tame ones which belonged to Tipu Sultan, and an occasional wolf. There are mahseer of unusual size in the Bhavani and Cauvery.