Buchanan’s journey through
59 6
them; but each individual halted for a very Ihort time on any one fpot. They wentin a very clofe body, and left behind them very few ftragglers. In an hour afterthe flock had pafled, few were to be difcovered in the neighbourhood of the town.The flragglers from the grand body did not extend above a hundred yards on eachfide of it, and were perhaps not more than one to the cubic foot. In the middle ofthe flock four times that number muft be allowed to the fame fpace. I could notperceive, that in their pafi'age they did the fmalleft damage to any vegetable; butI was informed, that laft year a flock pafled, when the crop of iola (Holcus forghum)was young, and had entirely devoured it. The noife of this immenfe number ofinfefts fomewhat refembled the found of a cataradt. At a diftance they appeared likea long, narrow red cloud near the horizon, which was continually varying itsfhape. The locufts were as large as a man’s finger, and of a reddilh colour.Some of them I put into a box, intending next day to examine thembut in thecourfe of the night they were devoured by the ants.
1 yth May. — In the evening I went from Mundium to the banks of the Cavery(Kavari), oppofite to Seringapatam . For one half of the way the country is almoftentirely free from rocks, or wafte lands. Here I obferved a fpace of about fiftyyards in diameter, confifting entirely of a denudated rock of very white glaflyquartz. 1 here was no other rock near it. The quartz feparates into fragments ofa rhomboidal form, from the fize of an orange, to that of a man’s head ; but thofeare all difpofed in ftrata, every fix or eight inches of rock feparating, with aclean ftraight furface, from the fimilar parts on either hand. Thefe ftrata are vertical;but, contrary to all the others that I have feen in the country, run nearly eaft and weft.
About half way to Seringapatam I arrived at a hilly country that reaches very nearto the Cavery. On the fouth fide of thefe hills Lord Cornwallis encamped, beforethe final engagement which gave him pofieffion of the ifland. His marches fromBangalore may every where be traced by the bones of cattle, thoufands of whichperilhed through fatigue and hunger. The road among thefe hills is no where fteep,as it leads over a part of the ridge that is not high ; but towards the weft arenumerous fmall mountains. Many parts of thefe hills are cultivated ; but much moreis incapable of ever becoming arable. The whole is ftony, and the bareft countrythat 1 have ever feen. From afcending the ridge, until reaching the Cavery, one canhardly find a bulh fufficiently large to make a broom. Of the country in this day’sroute perhaps feven-tenths are arable, and of thefe a fifth at leaft produces wet crops.Many of the tanks however are ruinous, and their beds are now cultivated with iola,or Holcus forghum.
The ftrata on thefe hills are various. I faw red granitic porphyry, and tookfpecimens of a fine-grained gneifs, confifting of pale red felfpar, white quartz, andblack mica. The moft common rock, however, is the hornblende flate with quartz,which I have before mentioned. When expofed to the air in large high mafles, foas to prevent the water from lodging on it, the pieces decay into fragments of arhomboidal form ; but, when expofed to the air on a level with the ground, fo as tobe penetrated by the rain water, it divides into thin lamina:, like common fchiftus.