MYSORE, a city in the south of the Peninsula of India, in lat. 12° 18' 24" N., and long. 76° 41' 48" E., 10 miles S. by W. of Seringapatam. This city gives its name to a principality lying be tween lat. 38' and 2' N., and long. 74° 42' and 78° 36' E,, surrounded on all sides. by British territory. The state has an area of 24,723 square miles, and in 1881 had a population of 4,186,188, the census of 1871 having shown 5,055,412. It is an undulating and much broken table-land, elevated from 1800 to 3000 feet above the sea, and the general elevation of the country increases from about 2000 feet above sea-level, along the northern and southern frontiers, to about 3000 feet at the central water-parting which separates the basin of the Krishna from that of the Cauvery. The hill country called the Malnad is confined to the tracts border ing or resting on the Western Ghats. The Nuggur division to the N. of Astagram possesses an elevation generally from 2000 to 2400 feet above the level of the sea. A marked feature of the country is the number of isolated hills called Drug, on the most inaccessible of which former chiefs built forts, afterwards in many instances strengthened and improved by Hyder and Tipu, and still in good preservation, but now without guns. . The most remarkable are Shivaganga, Savandrug (4024 feet), Nundidrug (4810 feet), and Chittuldrng, Coalidrug, and Karbaldrug, the last of which obtained an evil fame as a state prison. The eight highest peaks in Mysore are Mulaina Giri (6317 feet), Kuduri-mukha (6215 feet), Baba 13ooden Giri (6214 feet), Kalhatti (6155 feet), Rudra Giri (5692 feet), Pnshpa Giri (5626 feet), 3Ierti Gudda (5451 feet), Woddin Gudda (5006 feet). Five of these hills are in the Baba Booden or Chandradrona range, a magnificent cluster in the shape of a horse-shoe, in the centre of which is a rich but pestiferous valley called Jagar.
The geological structure of Mysore is mainly hypogene schists, penetrated and broken up by plutonic and trappean rocks in every form of intrusion, and overlaid with occasional patches of laterite and the kankar calcareous deposit. The gneissic rock about Bangalore possesses great economic value, being easily quarried from the surface. Gold is found betwixt Anicul and
Punganur, near Baitinangalam and Ooscotta, and near the Batterine Hills, but not in remunerative quantities.
Rivers.—The Tunga and Bhudra rise in the N.W. of Mysore, and, uniting, form the Tumbudra, which flows northwards and westwards till it joins the Krishna below Kurnool. The banks of the Tuntbudra are too high for irrigation purposes. The Cauvery rises in Coorg, and passes through and out of Mysore in a south-easterly direction, after receiving the Heinawati, the Lokani, the Shimsha, and the Arkavati from the north, and the Lack rnantirth and the Kabbani from the south. The Cauvery and its tributaries supply numerous irriga tion channels and tanks. The Pennar or Penn6r, the Palar, and Southern Pennar or Polder, rise in the eastern part of Mysore, in their short course through which their waters are detained and con verted into chains of tanks. The Sharavatty, on tho N.W., runs to the west, and hurls itself, by a sheer descent of 900 feet, down the ghats in the magnificent falls of Gersoppa.. None of these rivers are suitable for navigation. There are no natural lakes in Mysore ; but there are 37,682 artificial reservoirs, some of which are of con siderable magnitude ; that of Sulek6re is 40 miles in circumference.
The principal forests are found clothing the sides of the western mountains. They abound in teak, black-wood, and other valuable kinds of. thither.
The climate, though pleasant, is not generally salubrious. '['hat of Bangalore is favourable to Europeans. The thermometer rarely rises above 00 degrees, and the nights all the year round are cool and refreshing. The elevation of the Chittul drug or N.E. division is somewhat less than that of Bangalore. In climate it is similar, but its hills are feverish. The S.E. division, called Astagram, in its southern and western parts is covered with fine jungle extending to the slopes of the Western Ghats on the one side, and to the base of the Neil gherry Hills on the other. Fever prevails during some seasons of the year, but on the whole the climate is generally a healthy one.