11.1 FSORE DISTRICT 251
of the elephant, shut in the western, southern, and some parts of the
eastern frontier. The only break in this mighty barrier is in the south-
east, where the Cauvery takes its course towards the lowlands and
hurls itself down the Cauvery Falls, called Gagana Chukki and Bhar
Chukki, at the island of Sivasamudram. The principal range of hills
within the District is the BILIGIRI-RANGAN in the south-east, rising to
5,ogr feet above the level of the sea. Next to these, the isolated hills
of Gopalswami in the south (4,770 feet), and of Bettadpur in the
north-west (4,389 feet), are the most prominent heights, with the
Chamundi hill (3,489 feet) to the south-east of Mysore city. The
French Rocks (2,882 feet), north of Seringapatam, are conspicuous
points of. a line culminating in the sacred peak of Melukote (3,579
feet). Short ranges of low hills appear along the south, especially in
the south-west. On the east are encountered the hills which separate
the valleys of the Shimsha and Arkavati, among which KABBALDURGA
(3507 feet) has gained an unenviable notoriety for unhealthiness.
Mysore District may be described as an undulating table-land,
fertile and well watered by perennial rivers, whose waters, dammed by
noble and ancient anicuts, enrich their banks by means of canals.
Here and there granite rocks rise from the plain, which is otherwise
unbroken and well wooded. The extreme south forms a tarai of dense
and valuable but unhealthy forest, occupying the depression which
runs along the foot of the Nilgiri mountains. The lowest part of this
is the remarkable long, steep, trench-like ravine, sometimes called the
Mysore Ditch, which forms the boundary on this side, and in which
flows the Moyar. The irrigated fields, supplied by the numerous
channels drawn from the Cauvery and its tributaries, cover many
parts with rich verdure. Within this District alone there are twenty-
seven dams, the channels drawn from which have a total length of
807 miles, yielding a revenue of 53 lakhs.
The geological formation is principally of granite, gneiss, quartz, and
hornblende. In many places these strata are overlaid with laterite.
Stone for masonry, principally common granite, is abundant throughout
the District. Black hornblende of inferior quality and potstone are
also found. Quartz is plentiful, and is chiefly used for road-metalling.
Dikes of felsites and porphyries occur abundantly in the neighbourhood
of Seringapatam, and a few elsewhere. They vary from fine-grained
hornstones to porphyries containing numerous phenocrysts of white to
pink felspar, in a matrix which may be pale green, pink, red, brown,
or almost black. The majority of the porphyries form handsome
building stones, and some have been made use of in the new palace at
Mysore. Corundum occurs in the Hunsur taluk. In Singaramaran-
halli the corundum beds were found to be associated with an intrusion
of olivine-bearing rocks, similar to those of the Chalk Hills near Salem,
VOL. XVIII. R
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