380 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



Municipali- 

 ties AND 

 Stations. 



CHAP. XVII. stands " Stoneliouse/' which contains the Council Chamber and 

 the ofl&ces of the Madras Secretariat. The hill commands a fine 

 view of the Ootacamand valley and the distant Kunda range. In 

 the hollows and on the spurs of Doddabetta to the north and 

 south of Stonehouse are many residences. The lands on these 

 slopes are generally very fertile and well watered, and for this 

 reason a considerable and greatly extending area is cultivated as 

 garden land. In a steep ravine about half a mile to the north of 

 Stonehouse are the Public Gardens and the Toda mand from 

 which Ootacamand takes its name. Above the Public Gardens, 

 stretching across the Doddabetta saddle, is the Government 

 Cinchona Plantation. On the northern shoulder of the ravine, 

 adjoining the Public Gardens, lies Norwood, the hill residence of 

 the Governor of Madras, backed by a fine wood of eucalyptus on 

 the side of the Snowdon mountain. 



From the foot of Stonehouse, towards the south, runs the 

 highway to Coonoor, which disappears in the deep cutting (which 

 separates Elk Hill from the Doddabetta range), bridged by the 

 aqueduct of the south water-supply channel. 



This is a simple description of the main valley, but the limits 

 of the station lie far beyond it and include two other important 

 valleys — to the south and parallel with it, Lovedale, with its 

 picturesque little lake, above which stand the extensive storied 

 buildings of the Lawrence Asylums with their lofty Italian 

 tower — to the north, the valley of Mdlemand, which opens out 

 towards the head of the Segur Pass. Between the Ootaca- 

 mand and the Malemand valleys is a hollow, across the outlet of 

 which a dam has been thrown, forming the Mdlemand reservoir, 

 from which, through a channel nearly three miles in length, the 

 northern portion of Ootacamand is supplied with water. 



One of the peculiar features of the town is the manner in which 

 the population. Native and European, is scattered over the 

 greater portion of the area lying within the municipal limits noted 

 below. The houses occupied by Europeans generally have not 

 less than five or six acres of land attached, and many possess 

 domains from twenty to seventy acres in extent. In the chief 

 Native bazaar on tbe border of the lake some two or three thou- 

 eand persons are congregated, and perhaps half of this number 

 in Kandel, a bazaar in a small valley to the west of the station ; 

 but a large number of Natives have their homes in scattered 

 hamlets, chiefly in the eastern portions of the station. The 

 inhabitants of these hamlets are chiefly Kanarese, with a fair 

 sprinkling of Tamils. There is no Badaga village within muni- 

 cipal limits, and only three or four Toda mands. 



Area of station, lying within a circle with three miles' radius 

 from the Jail Hill, is 19,297* 74 acres, or about 30 square miles. 



— area and 

 population, 



