430 8HERVAR0Y HILLS. Ouap. XXV 



During my tour througli the principal Tamil districts I 

 was chiefly struck with the evidences, furnished by the 

 pagodas of Madura and Seringam, and the works of Tirumalla 

 Naik, of the great surplus revenue which was once derived 

 from the land. By the execution of additional public works, 

 the improvement of means of communication, and judicious 

 reductions of the land-tax, which will induce the ryots to bring 

 more waste land under cultivation, much has been effected, but 

 much still remains to be done, before the country attains the 

 same degree of prosperity which it appears to have enjoyed 

 in the best days of the Pandyan and Naik dynasties. Tanjore 

 has probably already reached the highest state of profit- 

 able rice cultivation, through the irrigation supplied by the 

 Coleroon anicuts. But much may yet be done with regard 

 to the encouragement of the growth of cotton in Coimbatore, 

 Madura, and Tinnevelly ; and hereafter the coffee and chin- 

 chona plantations of the Neilgherry hills, the Puluoys, and 

 the Anamallays will supply another important source of 

 V. ealth and prosperity. 



To the north of the Cauvery, in the district of Salem, 

 there is a range of isolated hills, called the Shervaroys, which 

 rise, a few miles north-east of the town of Salem, into a mass 

 of densely wooded flat-topped hills. The mean height of the 

 table-land of the Shervaroys, on theii' summits, is 4600 feet, 

 and the highest peak rises to 5260 feet. In the Salem dis- 

 trict the south-west monsoon sets in early in June, and 

 showers continue till September ; and in the end of October 

 the north-east monsoon brings a return of rain from the 

 opposite quarter, which continues until December, when the 

 rains cease, owing to the change of wind from north-east to 

 due north. There are several coffee estates on the Shervaroy 

 hills, but they are considered to be too dry, and, although 

 the coffee produced is said to be of excellent quality, yet the 

 yield is small, and I was told that the Shervaroy plantations 



