122 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



About 4 P.M. of the day after we reached Coimbatore, we loaded 

 one bandy with our outfit and provisions, filled the bottom of 

 another with straw for ourselves, settled our dues at the traveller's 

 bungalow, and with the Httle bullocks at a sharp trot, started 

 south for the Animallais. The road was very good, and it literally 

 swarmed with people travelling along. "When night came I spread 

 my blanket on the straw and then had my boy arrange boxes and 

 bundles all around me, so that when the cart tilted sideways I 

 would not roll about. The cart wheels are so large that a very 

 small stone causes a terrible tilt and a fearful jolt, so that such 

 riding is very wearisome. All night long we went jolting on, 

 stopping only at midnight for the buUocks to feed and rest, and at 

 daybreak the next morning the steep blue sides and serrated crest 

 of the Animallai range loomed up all along the south. At last we 

 reached the little village of Animallai, ten miles from the foot of the 

 hills, a sort of half-way house between the heart of the jungles and 

 Coimbatore. This is the winter headquarters of the Forest Ranger 

 in charge of the Animallais, and for his use there is a good bun- 

 galow, in which all wandering white men are allowed to take 

 shelter as a matter of charity. In the course of my goings and 

 comings I afterward occupied the place many times, sometimes a 

 week at a time, and it is not strange that I conceived quite an 

 affection for this " snug harbor." 



As soon as we arrived, the Government writer, with the ap- 

 palling name of Venkateramiah, came and offered his services in 

 helping us along. We halted at the bungalow until the next day, 

 when early in the morning the writer mustered a gang of about 

 twenty-five coolies to carry my luggage up the steep pass, and we 

 drove on to the "foot of the ghaut." 



On the northern or Coimbatore side, the Animallais rise very 

 steeply up from the plains to a height of from two thousand to five 

 thousand feet, so that it is a steep, steady climb from the level plain 

 up to the summit of the range. Once the summit is reached, the 

 hills slope very gradually down into Cochin and Travancore, drain- 

 ing nearly all the water in that direction ; so that, while the Coim- 

 batore district may be dry and parched by drought, the native 

 states on the opposite side will be well watered, green, and fertile. 



Upon reaching the foot of the Ardivarum ghaut we dismissed 

 the carts, and the coolies took my luggage upon theii' shoulders. 

 A horse was waiting there for me, sent down by the friend I had 

 not yet seen, and leaving my servant to accompany the luggage, I 



