EXPLA.NATORT INTRODUCTIOTT. 11 



who visited the Hills ; and the value of whose opinion of 

 their climate and capabilities, is enhanced by the assurance, 

 that it was uttered by men whose minds were free from all 

 bias in regard to them. 



The late highly distinguished prelate, Bishop James, in a 

 letter addressed to the Eight Hon'ble S. E-. Lushington, 

 then Governor of Madras, dated " Ootacamund, Deer. 4th, 

 1830," says: "The Hills far exceeded anything I had 

 allowed myself to expect. I have been racking my memory 

 for some place to compare them with ; the closest resem- 

 hlance I can find, is * Malvern,^ at the fairest season : hut 

 the extentj and hold variety give these a decided superiority. 

 I have a fuller sense of the enjoyment to he derived from air 

 and exercise than I remember to have ever experienced, at any 

 time, or at any place. Of the capacity for agricultural im- 

 provements which really exist here, no one can doubt." 



The Marquis of Dalhousie, when at Ootacamund, in 1855, 

 received a memorial from the residents, soliciting the exten- 

 sion of the Electric Telegraph line to that place ; and in his 

 reply, communicated by Mr. Edmon stone, as secretary to 

 the Government of India, he says ; " In the three stations of 

 Ootacamund, Coonoor and Kotergherry ; there is a large body 

 of permanent residents, and a very numerous assemblage of 

 occasional visitors during a great part of the year. His Lord- 

 ship entertains no doubt whatever that the settlements will 

 rapidly increase with increasing facilities of access to them 

 and growing Jcnowledge of the great advantages of their varied 

 and admirable climate. 



" A wing of a European Regiment, also, is stationed close 

 at hand, at Jackatalla ; and His Lordship has no doubt that 

 it will become the quarters for a whole Regiment." 



" So large a community may, in the opinion of the Governor 

 2 



