5 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 



CHAP, occupying the whole southern quarter of the great Indian 



' peninsula. Its western side is formed by the coast of 



Malabar ; its eastern side by the coast of Coromandel ; its 

 apex by Cape Comorin ; whilst its base may be indicated by 

 the river Kristna. In addition to this triangle however, the Pre- 

 sidency stretches out a long narrow arm on its north eastern 

 corner, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. This arm is known 

 as the Northern Circars, and connects the Presidency of 

 Madras with that of Bengal. Its existence on the Map, 

 occasions that large blank to the northward of the Kristna, 

 which is partly occupied by the dominions of the Nizam, and 

 partly by the wild inhabitants of an unhealthy tract of hill 

 country which is still only half explored. 



5 Physical features of the country. The Madras Pre- 

 sidency may be said to consist of a table land sloping from 

 west to east, and from south to north ; and supported on 

 either side by a chain of mountains, known respectively as the 

 Eastern and Western Ghauts. Each chain runs parallel with 

 the coast on either side. The Eastern Ghauts rise at a distance 

 of from 30 to 60 miles from the Coromandel coast, and leave the 

 large irregularly level, and generally sandy plain of the 

 Carnatic between themselves and the Bay of Bengal. The 

 Western Ghauts rise much more abruptly and to a much 

 greater height on the Malabar coast, and leave a much nar- 

 rower strip of land between themselves and the Indian ocean. 

 The two chains running north to south gradually unite at 

 Cape Comorin. Thus the Madras Presidency consists of a 

 large triangular table land, sloping away from the great 

 western wall to what may be called the eastern mounds ; 

 and from the southern territory of Mysore, which has a 

 medium elevation of 3,000 feet, to the northern districts of 

 Beljary and Cuddapah, where the mean height is 1,600 

 feet. East of the table land is the broad sandy plain of 

 the Carnatic ; west of the table land is the narrow fertile 

 territory known as Canara and Malabar. 



