94 TWO YEAKS IN THE JUNGLE. 



trict ; the hypotbenus^ extends northeast and southwest, and the 

 apex reaches down to Coimbatore and Palghaut. 



The base of the Neilgherries is encu-cled by a wide belt of dense 

 and unhealthful forest, which affords abundant cover for elephants, 

 tigers, bears, hysenas, elk, and small deer, and has long been famous 

 as a hunting gi'ound for large game. The sides of the hills are 

 either perpendicular granite cliflfs of great height, or very steep 

 wooded slopes scored by deep ravines and rocky gorges. Upon 

 the summit we see a mde expanse of smooth, roUing hiUs and 

 ridges, which rise up on the northeast and southwest into three 

 separate ranges of lofty peaks, one of which, Dodabetta, eight thou- 

 sand seven hundred and sixty feet high, is the second highest peak 

 south of the Himalayas. Five other peaks exceed eight thousand 

 feet in height, and the town of Ootacamund, in the centre of the 

 plateau, is seven thousand three hundred feet above the level of 

 the sea.* 



There are no forests upon these hills, nor continuous jungle of 

 any kind ; but here and there, upon wet hillsides or in moist hol- 

 lows, are small patches of dense, leafy jungle, called "sholas," which 

 afford cover for sambur deer, muntjac, foxes, jackals, porcupines, 

 black monkeys, and even tigers. 



The climate upon the Neilghen'y range is truly delightful. 

 Owing to its elevation, it strikes the happy medium between the 

 extremes of heat and cold, and of drought and flood, so that here 

 there is at all seasons the " ethereal mildness " of perpetual spring. 

 Even during the great di'ought and consequent famine of 1876-77, 

 which prevailed upon the plains, the clouds wbich rolled up fi'om 

 the southwest laden with moisture from the Indian Ocean, encoun- 

 tering the cool peaks of the Blue Mountains, were compelled to 

 " drop down the dew." The average annual rainfall at Ootacamund 

 is fifty-five inches, and even in 1876, the first year of the famine, 

 there were seventy-six rainy days, and the total rainfall was 25.16 

 inches. The average annual temperature at the same place is 

 55.83 degrees. In 1876, the mean temperature for July was sixty- 

 one degrees. The air upon the Hills is pure, cool, and invigorat- 

 ing, and the nights are decidedly cold. Naturally enough, this is 

 the sanitarium for Southern India, whither come enervated civil 

 and military officers, soldiers, and civilians of all classes, from the 



* The Neilgherries are composed almost wholly of porphyritic granite, cov- 

 ered by a deep layer of rich, black, and fertile soil. 



