INTRODUCTION. Vii 
and ‘the table-land. of the Neelgherries. is’ about»seyen thousand, feet, whence the 
country again declines towards Coimbatore.; Colonel Sykes. informs. us, that inthe 
Dukhun, on the top of, the Ghauts, there,are numerous.spurs or ranges of. mountains 
extending to the E..and S.E., the.vallies between which are either narrow, tortuous, 
and. fissure-like, or wide and flat... This, observation, will, apply in ‘a great measure to 
the, table-land.in. general, which: is tether undulating than Binh and ‘covered with nume- 
rous smalleriranges of hills.'s © ons 6 yd bodyniei ban | nisl | Foattin 
This table-land, Beopasible. Senne the coast by various passes, “is aibiy the natives called _ 
Balaghaut, or country aboye the Ghauts, and thelowlands, Payin-ghaut, or country 
below the Ghauts. This, low country, stretching and gradually declining from the 
Ghauts to the sea, is in the Concan thirty-five miles in breadth, intersected, by ravines, 
which are traversed by small streams; in Canara the Ghauts.approach within «a few 
miles of the sea. In South Malabar the coast is low, much broken, and, like that of 
Travancore, distinguished by the peculiarity of being intersected by long narrow inlets 
of the sea,which run parallel with the coast, sometimes at the distance of a few hundred 
yards; at.others of three or; four miles, to which the numerous mountain streams. flow, 
and with which the sea communicates by six shallow openings, of which the only one 
navigable for ships, is that on the south bank of which Cochin ‘is situated... By this 
backwater a system of inland navigation is carried on, which is always safe, and, by 
artificially connecting approximating inlets, has been extended to nearly three hundred 
miles. The breadth varies from twelve and fourteen miles to two hundred yards, and 
the depth from many fathoms to a few feet. ‘‘ In other parts where there are none 
‘* of these salt inlets, the lowlands on the sea coast within the downs are overflowed, 
“‘ and the fresh water stagnates and evaporates.” 
On the eastern coast of the Peninsula, the Carnatic presents along strip of tet land, 
and the plains of the Coromandel coast form a broad, though unequal belt between the 
mountains and the sea. The soil is in most, places described as being composed of either 
sand or gravel; in others of the debris of granite and. trap-rocks, and the alluvial deposits 
of all the rivers which descend from the table-land, some of them conveying’ much 
decayed vegetable matter from the extensive forests through which they flow. | Parts of | 
the Carnatic and Coromandel coasts are described as being composed of plains of marine 
sand, in which remains of oysters and cockles are found ; but these may have been of 
very recent origin, as the whole coast may formerly have been overflowed, as Cuttack is 
at the present day, whenever a great storm occurs, as was the case in May 1830, and 
again on the 3lst of Oct. 1831, when the inundation extended from Kedgeree to 
Cuttack, but its greatest fury was Spent in the Midnapore district, and on the 
unfortunate coasts of Kedgeree, Hidgelee, and Balasore. The large bunds (embank- 
ments) of those coasts, behind which a numerous population slept in fancied security, 
were suddenly overwhelmed by a tremendous wave, which swept away with resistless 
force every house and every article of property in the native villages, at the same time 
destroying the rice crops, all the cattle of an extensive tract of country, and a large 
b2 portion 
