206 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



most delightfully with the stately teak, ebony, 

 blackwood, and other gigantic trees of the primeval 

 forest, where the air, being confined, is generally 

 close and suffocating. The surface of the ground is 

 everywhere thickly strewn with decayed leaves or 

 dead branches, and underneath the trees may be 

 seen the green of young seedlings which spring up 

 by thousands during the rains, but for the most 

 part pine and die, being deprived of light and 

 heat. 



The climate on the tableland is about the finest 

 in the known world — exempt alike from the ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold, it realises as near as any 

 land " eternal spring," for its great alevation (8000 

 feet above the level of the sea) tempers the heat 

 generally felt in these latitudes, and gives the air a 

 pureness and bracing elasticity peculiarly grateful 

 to Europeans after a lengthened sojourn in the 

 scorching plains ; indeed, if cloudless skies, con- 

 tinual sunshine, and pleasant weather were the 

 only essentials to human happiness, the Neilgherries 

 would be the most likely place to seek it of any that 

 I have yet met with in my wanderings over land 

 and sea. 



In its peculiar style of beauty nothing can exceed 

 the scenery of the hills. Stupendous peaks, groups 

 of gigantic forest-trees, hanging woods and foaming 

 cascades, alternate with clumps of rhododendrons, 

 covered with crimson bloom, wild camellias, jessa- 

 mines, and high waving ferns, whilst vines and 



