96 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



reached the picturesque little village of Coonoor, at an elevation of 

 five thousand nine hundred and fifty-four feet. 



Twelve miles from Coonoor, in the centre of the Neilgherry 

 plateau, is Ootacamund, the capital of the Hill district, the fashion- 

 able resort of Southern India, and the headquarters of all the 

 sportsmen who visit the hills. It is the least like a town of any I 

 ever saw or heard of, for it is so efiectually scattered, over so many 

 hills, that as a town it has no individuahty whatever. But it is a 

 highly pretentious one nevertheless, with its hotels, club, pack of 

 hounds, shops, and an assortment of Government institutions. A 

 network of fine metalled roads run around and over the hills, and 

 a goodly number of pretty cottages and fine bungalows perch around 

 on the hill sides, each with its spacious " compound " of an acre or 

 more laid out in shady, gravelled walks, and terraces of flowers. 



As to climate and natural scenery, the Neilgherries sui-pass any 

 mountain region I have ever seen, neither cold nor hot at any sea- 

 son, always green and fresh, and always either softly beautiful or 

 precipitously grand. The soil is very rich, and produces the finest 

 fruits and vegetables to be found in Southern India, among which are 

 mangos, bananas (or plantains, as they are universally called here), 

 mandarin oranges, pineapples, and even pears, although I am bound 

 to say the last-named tasted more like raw turnips than pears. The 

 common vegetables are potatoes, cabbages, and cauliflowers of good 

 size and quality, celery, onions, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, car- 

 rots, radishes, peas, lettuce, etc. Tea and coffee are grown in vast 

 quantities, tobacco is grown very successfull}', and also large quan- 

 tities of cinchona bark, from which the priceless quinine is manu- 

 factured. 



The British Government knows how to do some very admirable 

 things now and then out of pure charity. For instance, it owns 

 and manages a vast cinchona plantation upon the hills, from which 

 it manufactures quinine in great quantities, and while this great 

 fever specific is selling in the extortionate English apothecary shops 

 for from fifteen to twenty rupees per ounce, the poor fever-stricken 

 native, or European either, for that matter, can go to the Govern- 

 ment Court-House and procure it for one and a half rupee per 

 ounce. What a boon is this to suffering humanity ! 



In our glorious republic, we have, until very I'ecently, managed 

 this matter rather differently. We have charged a snug little thirty 

 per cent, import duty upon quinine, which prevented its impor- 

 tation and sale at a low price, and protected a single firm of chem- 



