a town and celebrated fortress of Hindustan, and capital of a district belonging to the rajah of Mysore. The fort is situated on a rock which is surrounded by walls, and is considered as impregnable. Around it are low, rocky, bare hills. It was besieged without effect by Hyder Ali in 1776; but three years after, having bribed the Mahomedan part of the garrison, he got possession of the fortress on his own terms, at which time the town was very large. Ever since, however, it has been on the decline, though the fortress is one of the strongest in India.

The plain of Chittedroog is ten miles from north to south, and four from east to west. It consists of a black soil, called eray, which, say the natives, is always the sign of an unhealthy country. Water is scarce throughout the country; and it must be drawn from very deep wells, where it is of an indifferent quality. This may be in part attributed to the dirty practices of the Hindus, who wash their clothes, bodies, and cattle, in the very tanks or wells from which they take their own drink. At the conclusion of the last war with Tippoo in 1799, the Mysore country was in many districts laid desolate; Chittedroog in particular experienced the calamitous effects of the contest, and a great proportion of its inhabitants was in consequence obliged to fly. The travelling distance of the town from Serignapuram is 115 miles, and it is 335 miles from Madras. (Buchanan's Journey from Madras, &c.; Rennell's Memoir of a Map of Hindustan; Wilks' History of the South of India, &c.)