92 MYSORE. The gneissic rock about Bangalore possesses great economic value, being easily quarried from the surface, and well adapted for fine archwork by the mere process of hammer-dressing. Certain porphyries, basalts, and granitoids yield excellent building material for ordinary work, but require chisel-dressing. The Turuvekere basalt bears a high polish. The gneiss is also frequently traversed by granitic or quartzose veins, when the component minerals are segregated and crystallized, the mica occurring in plates, the quartz in amorphous nodules or hexahedral prisms, and the selspar compacted in beds of varied colouring. Milky quartz is also segregated into large beds containing nests and seams of iron-ore and amethystine crystal. Tourmaline, beryl, garnets, schorl, epidote, actinolite, agates, ribbon-jasper, chert, and sundry ochres are procurable in various places. Iron-ore of pure quality, and occasionally magnetic, is abundant, while magnetic iron-sand overlays the country thickly about the Hágalwadi Hills. In the Tungabhadra valley, clay slate and the softer shales are common, and in this direction long stretches of black cotton-soil are found. Beds of limestone and sandstone are to be seen at intervals in tl northern part of the State, their discontinuity and dispersion being due to plutonic disturbance and subsequent denudation. Laterite is found near Bangalore in small quantities, and plentifully in Shimoga District, where it occurs in detached blocks, the prevailing colour being a reddish brown. It is used for building purposes and as road metal. Kankar is found in tracts penetrated by basaltic dikes, being met with in nodular masses and friable concretions in clay and gravel above the rocks, as also in irregular overlying beds. It is used for tank enbankments, and also burnt into lime. In the alluvium covering a tract of country near Betmangalam in Kolár, gold is found in the form of small fragments and dust; and the auriferous strata, on being worked, are now, after many trials and losses, proving remunerative in some parts. History:--The early history of Mysore is involved in obscurity'; but light has been thrown on it by numerous inscriptions on stone and copper found throughout the State. Various places mentioned in the Mahábhárata and Rimdyana have been identified. Mysore was the kingdom of the mythical Sugriva, whose general, Ilanumán, aided Rámá in his expedition against Lanka or Ceylon. At a later period, Buddhist emissaries appear to have visited the country, in the 3rd century B.C. The Jains established and long maintained their supremacy in Mysore, and have left several richly wrought temples and other memorials. In the earliest historical times, the northern part of Mysore was held by the Kadamba dynasty, whose capital, Banawasi, is mentioned by Ptolemy; they reigned with more or less splendour during fourteen
