, SOUTHERN MAIIRATTA COUNTRY con ' stitutes the British zillah of Dharwar. and ought likewise, geographically speaking, to include the small province of Sunda. The general boundaries are the rivers Kistna And Bhima on the north and north-east, the Tumbudra river on the south, the Hyderabad territory on the east, and the Syhadri range of mountains or Western Ghats on the west. This tract affords a great variety of eleva tion and of geologic'al structure. The western portion abounds with lofty forest trees, festooned by enormous perennial creepers. The ba„mboo forms a thick: and luxuriant underwood in some places, while others are entirely open ; ancl the banks of many clear and rapid streams•flowing througrh it abound with the black pepper plant, the wild cinnamon, and other odoriferous shrubs. Portions of this forest are often left entirely un touched by the axe or. knife., These_are,called kans, and are favourite resorts of wild animalm. To the east of the regular forest Rea a tract called the Mulnad or rain country. The bushes consi,t chiefly of the karunda, the pallas, etc. It abounds in tanks and artificial reservoirs for purposes of irrigation. East of the Mulnad is a great extent of alluvial plain, producing fine crops of wheat, cotton, maize, millet, Sorghum vulgare, Panieum lialicum, Cicer arietinum, etc. And on tho Hyderabad frontier is a succession of low, dry hills, with tabular summits, often rising in abrupt Fearped precipices, and intersecting and traversing the plains in various directions. The first or
mountainous division consists chiefly of micaceous clay and other schists, which to the northward are succeeded by ba,altic or trap formation. The MuIliad is composed of undulating clayslate hills, which become covered with basalt to the north. This tmp forination extends in a slanting direc tion from S.W. to N.E., nearly coinciding with a line drawn from Sadasheghur on the coast to Bijapur and Sholapur, and is almost coincident with that marking the separation of the two : great tribes of the population using totally distinct languages, the Mahratta and Canarese. The hills to the N.E. and E. are all of sandstone, sometimes resting on schists, sometimes immediately on granite, which latter the rock nearest the sur face in the central and eastern plains. A well defined range of bills to the S.W., called the Kupputgode, is basaltic. The extensive plains lying between these different lines of hills and eminences are composed of the rich black mould called regur or cotton ground, resulting from decomposed b.asaltic rocks. To the N.E. a con siderable tract of limestone is found, resting on the sandstone, about Bagalcote, 13adami, Hungund, 3fudibibal, etc.