THE Methodist Magazine. AUGUST, 1893. INDIA: ITS TEMPLES, ITS PALACES, AND ITS PEOPLE. BY W. S. CAINE, M.P.* XII. YSORE is one of the most important native states in India. It is surrounded entirely by British territory. The area of the state is 24,743 square miles, and its population 4,186,188. The most conspicuous of the modern rulers of Mysore are the famous Haidar Ali, and his son Tipu Sultan. Haidar usurped the throne in 1763, and his son Tipu was defeated by the British and slain at the storming of Seringa patam in 1799. Mysore State is an undulating tableland, broken by ranges of rocky hills and deep ravines. The general elevation of the country is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea, with a fine, *Picturesque India. By W. S. CAINE, M.P. 8vo, pp. 606. London : George Routledge & Sons. Toronto: William Briggs. VOL. XXXVIII. No. 2. pleasant climate. A peculiar feature in the scenery is the large number of isolated granite rocks called droogs, sometimes stupendous monoliths, sometimes huge boulders piled up, often rising 2,000 feet from the plain. Many of these are crowned with ruined fortresses, once the strongholds of robber chieftains, who domineered over the adjacent plains. The mountain flanks are clothed with superb forests, the resort of wild elephants, bison, tigers, panthers, leopards, bears, sambhar, and spotted deer, jungle fowl and spur fowl. The streams which gather from the hill sides and mountain ranges are at every favourable point em banked into chains of tanks, varying in size from ponds to large lakes, dispersed throughout the country to the total number of 38,000. The largest is the Sulukere tank, a noble sheet of water forty miles in circumference. There is a very remarkable stone Nandi, or sacred bull, on a low hill near the town, one of the finest in all India. At the lower end of the island of Seringapatam is the Lal Bagh, containing the mausoleum built by Tipu for his father Haidar Ali, in which he himself lies buried also. It is a square building, with dome and minarets, surrounded by a pillar corridor of black hornblende. The double doors, inlaid with ivory, were a present from Lord Dalhousie. The inscription on Tipu's tomb states that he died a martyr to Islam. The delightful city of Bangalore is one of the pleasantest and most attractive in India. It stands in the centre of the Mysore plateau, 3,113 feet above the sea, its climate being noted for its healthiness and suitability to European constitutions. Nilgiri means "the Blue Mountains." One side of Mur Kurti Peak is a sheer precipice of nearly 7,000 feet, and the view from the summit is superb. The hill tribes of the Nilgiris are among the most primitive and interesting races in India. The most attractive of them are the Todas; tall, well-proportioned, and |