OP THE NILAOIRI DISTRICT. liii 



Mailkott.ay, another village in the Toddiernaad, distance 7 miles. 

 Thermometer at 6 a.m., 33. A frost again, and the water also frozen ; 

 tlic ice not so thick as on the preceding morning, although the glasa 

 stood near the tent 3 degi-ecs lower. 10th and llth morniugs mild 

 and clondy ; the thermometer was not seen to sink below 44. 12th. 

 — To Nella Courli, a village in the Maiknaad, distance 3 miles. Thermo- 

 meter at 6 A.M., 40; at 8 p.m., 30. 13th. — No account of the thermo- 

 meter taken, but the water in the chatties frozen during the night. 



On coming to the low country on the 16th, the thermometer for 

 the greater part of the day stood at from 80 to 84. 



The thermometer from which the above register was taken hung 

 upon the tent ropes, close to which large fires were burning all the 

 night. It did not give, therefore, the real temperature of the air, for 

 when the mercury was above the freezing point, we had hard frost 

 and ice a hundred yards from the tent. In Hindostan, when the 

 thermometer sinks to the freezing point, the extremes of heat and 

 cold arc often felt in the same day ; but we have no example, I believe, 

 in this part of the globe, of a temperature so cool and so even for a 

 continuance as that which is shown from the register of the thermo- 

 meter given in the preceding part of this paper. 



We could not ascertain the exact height of our situation in this 

 mountainous region, but we considered ourselves to be at least three 

 times as high as the highest part of Mysore ; and if this calculation is 

 cori-ect, the elevation would be from 9 to 10,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea. In looking over Mysore on one side and the low country 

 of Coimbatore on the other, it w^as hard to distinguish the country 

 above from the country below the ghauts ; we were so much higher 

 than both. The party were on their legs most part of the day, and 

 generally walked ten or twelve miles up and down steep hills from 

 10 o'clock in the morning until sunset, without experiencing the least 

 inconvenience from heat, often indeed seeking the sunshine as a relief 

 from cold. With the exception of two slight ague fits there was no 

 sickness amongst our followers, notwithstanding the intense cold of the 

 nights and mornings, and the little protection they had against it. 



In every part of the high country we found raspberries, both red 

 and white, and sti'awberries growing in the greatest luxuriance ; wc 

 found also a fruit in shape resembling a medlar, but of much smaller 

 size, and in taste not to be distinguished from the gooseberry : its 

 interior arrangement is also the same. White roses, marrigolds, 

 balsams were seen in abundance and in full flower ; we found 

 specimens also of cinnamon and black pepper, and a tree yielding a 

 beautiful yellow dye. If the color should stand, as it promises to do, 

 the discovery of this tree would be an important one. The country is 

 inhabited by three classes of people, whose language, manners, and 

 customs arc entirely distinct, viz , Todevies, Koties and Borgies, The 

 two first are considered the aborigines of the hills, and the Todevies 

 to be a superior caste to the Koties. The Todevies are exclusively 

 herdsmen ; they have no fixed habitation, but wander with their herds 



