21G NILGHIRI HILLS. 



eitlier for pleasure or with professional views, and a brief notice of the 



facts published by these observers may fitly precede the present 



detailed report. 



The earliest description of the Geology of the Neelgherries, and at 



the same time the most detailed that has hitherto 

 Dr. De Benza. 



been published, is that of Dr. De Benza, which 

 appeared in Vol. 8 of the Journal* of the Madras Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society. In this notice Dr. De Benza gives a very full, and for the 

 most part, accurate description of the Mineralogy and Topography of 

 the. Hills, but in his Geological observations, he has fallen into the very 

 natural error (considering the state of Geological Science at the time 

 at which he wrote) of regarding the great mass of the rocks as of 

 Plutonic origin, and has described as Granitej Syenite, &c., rocks which, in 

 point of fact, are of an entirely different nature. In other respects Dr. De 

 Benza's report is very excellent, and it evinces in every page instances 

 of the careful and minute observation of the writer. 



In 1844-45 a series of letters descriptive of the topography, ethnology, 



Captain Congreve and geology, &c., of the hiiis by Captain Cougreve 



'■ ""^"^ ■ and Dr. Burrell, appeared in the Madras Spectator 



Newspaper, but never having been reprinted in any more lasting 



form, there can be but few, if any copies extant. -|- 



Some brief but very excellent observations on the Geology of the 



^, ,. . ^ ^ Hills are also contained in the Report of the 



Notice m Report ou '■ 



Medical Topography. Medical Topography of the Neelgherry Hills, 



printed by order of Government in 1844. This Report, like those ou 

 the Medical Topography of other Districts, is a compilation, and it is 

 not stated by whom the Geological portion of the Report was furnished. 



* This description previously appeared in a less complete form in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. IV., p. 413, August 1835. 



t Dr. Burrell, now Superintending Surgeon of the Centre Division, very liindly 

 furnished me, however, with some items of information on the Geology of the Hills, which 

 will be introduced in their proper place (H. F. B.) 



