Ivi APPENDIX TO THE MANUAL 



region, its effects upon myself, and the people under my orders, the 

 diseases of the natives, and whether they are more or less liable to 

 fever than the inhabitants of the low district, the capabilities and 

 resources of the country, whether it is adapted for the growth of 

 European productions, and generally to remark on any other topic 

 worthy of being brought to the notice of the public or of Govern- 

 ment. 



Limited as is the information a person in my humble situation in 

 this country has an opportunity of obtaining on some of those heads 

 I am sensible I can do the subject but little justice, yet as a plain 

 statement of facts may do much good by bringing to the notice of 

 Government and the European community the temperature and 

 salubrity which this extraordinary and interesting country enjoys 

 above every other to which we can have convenient access, I under- 

 take the task with pleasure but with much diffidence. 



I. Tem]}erature of the Climate.— With, respect to the climate of the 

 Neelgherry in as far as my experience has hitherto extended, I think 

 I may venture to pronounce it one of the plcasantesfc in the world as 

 it regards temperature. My residence in these mountains has been 

 since the 14th of March (now about three months), and probably the 

 hottest season of the year. A reference to the monthly registers of the 

 thermometer, with which I have furnished you, will prove that tliis is 

 incomparably the most temperate Asiatic climate with which we arc 

 yet acquainted, and far superior to that of the Cape or the Mauritius. 

 Here at no season of the year is it too hot in the shade, and to sleep 

 under a light blanket in the warmest months is always agreeable. 

 To invalids and people suffering from the debility produced by a long 

 residence in a hot climate this, I should think, must prove of the first 

 importance. Neither hot winds nor sultry nights arc here known. 

 During the continuance of the milder months (for we have no hot 

 ones) the mornings and evenings are so cool that a visitor from the 

 low lands is very willing to seek the warmth of the sun, and one may 

 almost every day take exercise in the open air suffering no other 

 inconvenience than perhaps being a little sun-burnt. I am informed 

 by gentlemen who have visited the hills in December, January, 

 and February that the thermometer is frequently below the freezing 

 point, and that ice is found on the chatties in the mornings. It is at 

 that season very cold and chilly, and it will be absolutely necessary to 

 furnish with warm clothing such natives as may accompany their 

 masters to the hills, for otherwise they will be liable to attacks of 

 ague and bowel-complaints from the excessive coldness of the night 

 air. 

 The effects of 2. So long back as 1815 I suffered an attack of the Ganjam 

 the climate epidemic which appears to be an intermittent in its most malignant 

 on SrconsU- form, since which period when in feverish situations, or after exposure 

 tutions of the to inclement weather, I have been subjected to occasional attacks of 

 m" wX-?*"" fever. At Madras, in December last, while residing in a house nearly 

 ^^ "^ ^^ " surrounded by water (in Chintadrepetta), I had two attacks of ague ; 



