354 SHOLACUL. Chap. XXI. 



ascend on our road to the Neilglierries. A clump of trees, 

 consisting of jacks, mangos, and peepuls, formed a huge 

 arch, through which there was an enchanting landscape of 

 smiling hill and dale, with the dense forest beyond, crowned 

 by the broken outline of the distant mountains. 



We set out from Wundoor at daybreak, and passed a house 

 just outside the village, where, a few days before, a tiger had 

 carried off a child before tlie eyes of its parents. Next day 

 the brute had the temerity to come again and try to force open 

 the door, when a man shot it from the window. For some 

 hours we rode through a country where the jungle alternated 

 with cultivation in open glades, which in their natural state 

 are covered with Pandanus, but the people here, as in other 

 parts of Malabar, are fast encroaching on the forest, and 

 converting these glades into paddy-fields. As we approached 

 the foot of the mountains cultivation at last entirely ceased, 

 and the road led through a dense forest of enormous 

 bamboos, teak-trees with their large coarse leaves, black- 

 wood, and other fine timber. At noon we reached the post- 

 house of Sholacul, at the foot of the Sispara ghaut, which 

 leads up to the summit of the Koondahs, a western continu- 

 ation of the Neilgherries. 



The buikUng at Sholacul was surrounded by a very stout 

 pallisade, to protect it from the wild elephants, who strongly 

 object to all encroachments on their domain ; and even take 

 the trouble of pulling up the wooden milestones by the side 

 of the roads. We found all the roads which we travelled 

 over in Malabar excellent, and the ascent of the Sispara 

 ghaut, though only a zigzag bridle-path, is in very good 

 order. After leaving Sholacul the road first passes through 

 a region of gigantic reeds, and then through a belt of black- 

 wood, palms, and tree-ferns, with an undergrowth of Curcumas, 

 ferns, and a brilliant purple flower {Torenia Asiatica). The 

 black or rose-wood tree {Balhergia latifolia) grows to a 



