34 THE ITONHOLLAY RIVER. 



matter ; and though perfectly clear, it is bitter to the taste, and if constantly 

 drunk is injurious to health. Several large villages in the open country are 

 dependent for drinking-water on the river after it leaves the jungle. The 

 water here seems good at all seasons, probably from undergoing a filtering 

 process over beds of sand, where it is not shaded by trees. 



The Honhollay rises in. the Billiga-runguns, the parent branch being 

 joined soon after its exit from the hills by two tributaries ; one from Poonjoor, 

 near the southern end of the range — the other, a large stream called the 

 Chickhollay, from the open country towards the Neilgherries. After emerg- 

 ing from the Billiga-runguns through a gap about the centre of their western 

 face, the river turns sharp north, and flows parallel with the range, and 

 about four miles distant from it, through the Chamraj-Nuggar and Yellan- 

 door talooks* and joins the Cauvery fifteen miles above the celebrated falls 

 of Seevasamudrum. During its course its waters are drawn off by several 

 small channels for purposes of irrigation. The first of these, the Hongle- 

 waddy, is fed from an anient or stone dam, about twelve feet in height, 

 made of large, rough blocks of granite, faced with a brick wall to prevent 

 leakage : it is built across the stream from bank to bank. This raises the 

 level of the water to a height sufficient to admit of its being drawn off by 

 the channel, which runs for nine miles and feeds the Bamasamoodrum lake 

 close to Morlay. The anicut, channel, and lake or tank, are works of some 

 antiquity. The anicut and channel are now overgrown with dense jungle. 

 The channels further down the river are smaller, and the dams used for 

 turning the water into them are mere temporary structures of stakes, bushes, 

 &c, thrown up after the floods subside. 



There was formerly a good deal of cultivation under the Honglewaddy 

 channel at several points between its source and the lake, but almost the 

 whole of this has been gradually abandoned, owing to the depredations of 

 elephants and tigers. Up to the time of my settling at Morlay it was no 

 uncommon occurrence for a tiger to rush out and kill one or both the bul- 

 locks in a plough, if the driver left them for a moment. With the destruc- 

 tion of the tigers and reduction in the number of elephants, land is being 

 gradually taken up again, and the cultivators can now follow their avoca- 

 tions in peace. There is no necessity to watch the fields at night, except 

 occasionally to drive away deer and wild hogs, which is lighter work than 

 the keeping out of elephants used to be. 



The Eamasamoodrum tank at the end of the Honglewaddy channel is a 

 beautiful sheet of water, nearly two miles in length and five hundred yards 

 broad. It has, however, been silted up to a considerable extent by the 

 * Divisions of the country corresponding roughly to counties in England. 



I 



