sitting down to dinner, and I seldom spent a pleasanter
evening. Indeed, one frequently meets exceedingly
agreeable people belonging to the Survey or Revenue
Department, who travel in their own conveyance,
accompanied by a number of carts laden with their
tents, baggage, and provisions; these generally make
short marches, according to the requirements of the
service, and having a numerous staff of servants, they
understand making themselves very comfortable,
besides often enjoying the pleasure of sport provided
for them by planters of the district. Throughout this
account of my journey in India, I have abstained from
entering upon the subject of shikarring, for which there
is unlimited scope, as so many interesting volumes
have been penned on the subject by more competent
hands, that there is hardly room for the adventures of
an ordinary shot.
Hitherto I had not missed much, in point of scenery,
by travelling at night, as the country between Bangalore
and Hassan is of a most ordinary character, and I
shall pause here to make a few necessary remarks
respecting the district I am going to explore.
The natural division of Mysore is into two separate
and distinctly marked regions ; the larger one, the
Maidan, or open country, through part of which we
have hitherto pasfeed, consists of wide-spreading plains,
filled with villages and towns, and gradually rising on
proceeding westward. Their agricultural products are
ragi, gram, millet, and cotton in the northern portion,
and sugar-cane and rice in the more irrigated districts
of the south. The second division is called the Malnad,
or hill-country, to the west, and is covered with magnificent
forests, watered by perennial streams, and presenting
very charming scenery, here and there relieved
by isolated massy rocks, rearing their crests to four or
five thousand feet above the sea level, in many a
fantastic form and peak. The sheltered slopes of
these hills have been selected by enterprising men
for coffee plantations, which have of late years considerably
increased in number and extent, producing
the finest quality of that produce, excepting
perhaps Mokha.
This magnificent country rests on the Western
ghauts, communicating with the coast by narrow
passes. The aspect of the country, as throughout
India, undergoes a very material change with the
seasons. What is dry and parched during the months
of March, April, May, becomes green and productive
after the monsoon or trade winds, which here commence
early in June, and continue with occasional breaks
until the middle of September. The total population
of Mysore, according to the census of 1871, is about