JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. M.— August, 1835. 



I. — Geological Sketch of the Neilgherries, (Nil-girl.) By Dr. P. M. 



Benza, Surgeon to the Honorable the Governor of Madras. 



[Read at the Meeting of the 5th instant.] 



The group of lulls, called the Neilgherries, may be considered as 

 the southern termination of the Western Ghats, which at this place 

 end in abrupt, lofty, and almost vertical precipices ; the extensive 

 valley of Coimbatiir, dividing them from the Paighat chain, which, in 

 the same direction as the Ghats, extends down to Cape Comorin. 



The Neilgherries form an elevated plateau, projecting in an easter- 

 ly direction, from the line of the ghats, in the form of a triangle, the 

 base of which is the continuation of the ghats themselves, 



They rise abruptly from the table-land of Mysore, in stupendous 

 cliffs, with an elevation of many thousand feet. Two rivers encircle 

 them, as it were, running round their base. The Bhowani river, 

 rising in the western side of the Kiindas, and among all the hills of 

 that group, runs in an easterly direction along the foot of the side of 

 the Neilgherries, and, just below the apex of the triangle, is joined by 

 the Moyar, which together with the Paykar, having their origin in the 

 No ddimatty range precisely opposite the sources of the Bhowani, and 

 making a sharp curve after leaving the hills, runs an easterly course, 

 joining the Bhowani at Danikncottah, and under that name, after 

 running about 30 miles, they discharge their water into the Cavery. 



The Neilgherries*, being the highest hills in the whole of the 

 peninsula, south of the Himalaya, possess a greater degree of geologi- 

 cal interest than any other group in this extensive region. 



* " The Neilgherry Hills are situated between the parallels of 11° 10' 

 and 11° 32' N. latitude, and 76° 59' and 77° 31' E. longitude from Greenwich; 

 their greatest extent in an oblique direction, from S. W. to N. S. is from 38 to 



3 H 



