Chap. XXVII. 



CLIMATE OF THE HILLS. 



463 



country was barren and cheerless. During the monsoon it 

 is doubtless quite green. 



The Maliabaleshwur hills average an elevation of 4500 

 feet above the sea. They are composed almost entirely of 

 laterite,^ overlying eruptive rocks, such as basalt, greenstone, 

 and amygdaloid ; and the soil is a clay resultuig from the 

 disintegration of the laterite. 



On these hills October is the commencement of the dry 

 season, but during that month the amount of aqueous vapour 

 in the atmosphere is still considerable, while the temj)erature 

 is cool and equable. From November the au' becomes gra- 

 dually drier until the end of February ; the weather is dry 

 and cold, and a sharp dry easterly wind usually prevails. 

 The mean temperature of this season is 64°, with a daily 

 variation of about 12°. Fogs and mists commence in March, 

 and gradually increase until the rain begins in the end of 

 May. The hottest month is April. From the end of May to 

 September there is almost incessant rain, and the hills are 

 constantly enveloped in clouds and fog. The mean tempe- 

 rature of the rainy season is 64*5°, but the daily variation is 

 only 3°. The average raiufall is 227 inches, of which nearly 

 one-third comes down in August.^ (See Table, next page.) 



The vegetation of these liills, as might be expected from 

 the essential difference in the climate, is quite distinct from 

 that of the Neilgherries. There is a great want of forest-trees 

 in the jungles, and the trees and bushes are, as a rule, poor 

 and stunted. The hills are covered with grass and ferns, and 

 are dotted over with a shrub called by the natives rumeta. 

 It is the LasiosipTion speeiosus,'^ with flowers something like 

 small Guelder roses, clustered in terminal umbels. The Randia 

 dumetorum, a thorny bush, is also common. In the thickets 



- The trap formation of the northern 

 part of the ghauts terminates in IS*^ 

 N., and is succeeded by laterite. 



' Transactions of the Medical and 



Physical Society of Bombay for 1838, i. 

 p. 02. 



* Or Gnidia eriocephala of Graham. 

 — DalzeWs Bombay Flora, p. 221. 



